Bath scientists awarded major grant for research into crippling
arthritic condition
A team of scientists in Bath has been awarded a grant of £82,404 by leading medical research charity the Arthritis Research Campaign to investigate the genetics of the crippling arthritic condition of ankylosing spondylitis.
Around 300,000 people in the UK, mainly young men, are affected by AS, which causes inflammation and painful stiffening of the spine, often leading to a stiff "poker" back. It is often undiagnosed for many years; there is no cure, and patients have to rely on painkillers and exercise regimes to keep mobile.
The Royal Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Bath is the only national referral centre for patients with AS throughout the country, with more than 5,000 patients currently on its register.
Now a team led by Dr Andrei Calin, consultant rheumatologist at the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, and Sinead Brophy of Bath University, plan to use the patient data to set up a major study of AS to examine the extent to which the severity of disease is genetically determined.
While it is known that the disease runs in families, with a sex ratio of 2:5 to 1 men to women, severity is very variable. There are no scientific reasons for this.
"What we will be doing over the next three years is to investigate and define the influence of genetic factors on the outcome of the disease and its severity, explained Dr Calin. "This will help us to identify those people most at risk of progressive disease and to understand better the genetic effect on disease progression.
"The study will focus on the comparison of severity between family members while comparing how close these individuals are genetically. We know that the progression of the disease can be modified by exercise, and that education can help people stay in work. However, the difference between AS in men and women suggests that to some extent disease progression is genetically determined."
In the long term the team's aim is to identify those patients most at risk of severe disease, so that new treatments can be specifically targeted at them.
- Results of a study by Dr Calin and his group of the impact of sex on inheritance of AS was published in The Lancet on November 13
