A global study involving 50 different research centres has found hundreds of genes which cause five common, hard-to-treat and debilitating inflammatory diseases, paving the way to new treatments for these conditions.
\nLed by Brisbane\u2019s QUT and Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel, Germany, the results of the world-first study have been published. <\/p>\n
Co-senior author Professor Matthew Brown, from QUT\u2019s Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, said they investigated ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn\u2019s Disease and ulcerative colitis (collectively known as inflammatory bowel disease), psoriasis, and primary sclerosing cholangitis.
\n\u201cThese diseases affect about three per cent of the world\u2019s population, and commonly occur together in families and in individuals. The big question has been whether this is due to shared environmental risk factors, or due to shared genes and now we believe we have the answer,\u201d Professor Brown said.
\n\u201cThe research has conclusively demonstrated these conditions occur together mostly because they share similar genetic backgrounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudying nearly 86,000 subjects from 26 countries, our researchers identified 244 genetic variants which control whether or not people develop these conditions, a large proportion of which were completely new findings.
\n\u201cThey found that for nearly all of these diseases the reason they frequently occur together in individuals is due to the different diseases sharing genetic risk factors, rather than one disease causing the other.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor some diseases such as the common form of spinal arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, the study roughly trebled the number of genes known to be involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Professor Brown said the new gene discoveries pointed to some potential new therapies, including agents already in use for other diseases which can now be trialled in these conditions very promptly.
\n\u201cThe discoveries have shed new light onto the causes of these diseases, such as identifying genetic risk variants which most likely work by affecting the bacteria present in the gut, in turn causing inflammation in joints, the liver or the gut itself,\u201d Professor Brown said.\nQueensland University of Technology<\/link>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A global study involving 50 different research centres has found hundreds of genes which cause five common, hard-to-treat and debilitating inflammatory diseases, paving the way to new treatments for these conditions. Led by Brisbane\u2019s QUT and Christian-Albrechts-University, Kiel, Germany, the results of the world-first study have been published. Co-senior author Professor Matthew Brown, from QUT\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clinlabint.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}