Author Archives: Margarida Maia PhD

While some people with recent-onset axial spondyloarthritis whose joint damage isn’t visible on an X-ray will progress within 10 years to ankylosing spondylitis (AS), where joint damage becomes evident on an X-ray, the risk is relatively low, a French study found. The risk was about halved in patients on TNF inhibitors, but more…

Adding Xeljanz (tofacitinib) to treatment with biologic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) when these medications aren’t working well may help adults with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) keep their disease activity under control, a study suggests. Because the study included only a few patients, “further prospective randomized controlled trials with large…

High blood levels of two microRNAs, a type of small molecule involved in controlling which genes are turned on and off in cells, may predict a poor response to TNF inhibitors in people with ankylosing spondylitis, according to a study in China. While those…

A gene called NAT10 is less active in blood cells from people with new-onset ankylosing spondylitis (AS) than in those from healthy people, suggesting it may serve as a diagnostic biomarker, a study suggests. When combined with higher levels of immune cells called neutrophils,…

Two or more comorbidities affected nearly half of the ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients in a large study of the disease, with the most common coexisting conditions being uveitis (eye inflammation), depression, and hypertension (high blood pressure). Those with no comorbidities were younger and had shorter disease duration, the researchers reported,…

People with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) who report more severe pain and disease activity, and poorer quality of life, continue to work despite their AS — yet their productivity is far less than that of patients whose outcomes are not as severe. That’s according to a new analysis of data…

A man with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) went into disease remission within three months of receiving BCD-180, an experimental antibody designed to deplete a type of immune cell called TRBV9-positive T-cells, a study reports. He also stopped treatment with the TNF inhibitors he had taken continuously for five years,…

Note: This story was updated Oct. 31, 2023, to clarify that opioid use correlates with, rather than causes, an increased risk of bone fractures. People with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) who are taking opioids — to relieve pain or for other reasons — are up to almost twice as likely…

Children with one or more older siblings are up to 34% as likely as those who don’t have older siblings to develop ankylosing spondylitis (AS), a large Swedish study found. Having a tonsillectomy, a surgery to remove the tonsils when they repeatedly become infected before age 16, increased the…

People with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) respond equally well to two types of medications that ease inflammation — tumor necrosis factor (TNF) inhibitors or interleukin-17 (IL-17) inhibitors — regardless of their imaging findings or C-reactive protein (CRP) levels before treatment, a meta-analysis has found. This suggests that neither magnetic resonance imaging…