A hypothesis that proposes that immune response reactions may cause the rapid acquirement of pathologically significant SNPs, allele combinations and/or runs of homozygosity in rheumatoid arthritis and Parkinson’s disease.

It was previously hypothesized that many SNPs that are associated with schizophrenia could be acquired rapidly in one generation as part of an immune response reaction. It is now hypothesized that the same or a similar process could be responsible for some cases of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Parkinson’s disease.