Purpose of review: The purpose of this review is to highlight recent evidence with respect to expression and metabolomic profiling in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) that included ankylosing spondylitis (AS).
Recent findings: AxSpA is not only characterized by the strongest genetic contribution for any complex rheumatic disease but is also influenced by environmental and immunological factors. Large-scale association-based studies have identified over 100 genetic variants contributing to 30% of the genetic risk of ankylosing spondylitis. Recent studies in global expression and metabolomic profiling appear to highlight common themes despite differences in tissues, populations, techniques, and relative paucity of patients in many of these studies. Expression studies support a role for immunomodulation and bone remodeling in the pathogenesis and progression of axSpA/AS, while metabolomic studies implicate the importance of the intestinal microbial metabolism as well as fat and choline metabolic pathways in AS.
Keywords: Ankylosing spondylitis; Genomics; Metabolomics; MicroRNA; Spondyloarthritis; Transcriptomics.