Fifty years ago, experts first identified the HLA-B27 gene as the main predisposing factor for ankylosing spondylitisthe strongest association ever described for a polygenic pathology.
In the early 1990s, a variant was identified in the genetic heritage of Sardinia. Comparing the “B27” gene (which is present all over the world) and the Sardinian variant revealed a great similarity from a protein point of view, but many differences in terms of predisposition to develop the disease. With this discovery, experts believe they can elucidate the mechanism that causes ankylosing spondylitis and hence the development of ankylosing spondylitis general mechanism of susceptibility to immune-mediated diseases.
For this reason Sardinia and in particular the city of Barumini was chosen as the venue for the celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of the first report in the literature on the association of the HLA-B27 gene with ankylosing spondylitis.
Friday June 30th The international congress with the most famous experts in the world on the subject takes place in the congress hall of the nuragic site. The event is organized by Alberto CauliDirector of Rheumatology of the University Hospital of Cagliari and Full Professor of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Cagliari. Cauli and his team have been researching for many years to discover the mechanisms underlying this important inflammatory pathology of the spine.
Since it was first reported in the prestigious journals The Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine in 1973 (exactly 50 years ago), the topic has continuously attracted the attention of biomedical researchers because it is the strongest association which has never been described in medicine. Any polygenic immune-mediated pathology, if elucidated in its pathogenetic details, could hold the key to understanding not only arthritis but all other immune-mediated diseases such as arthritis Diabetes, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease and many others.
The works will be presented by Professor Alberto Cauli and the Professor Desiree van der Heijde, Leiden University in the Netherlands, with the lecture on the historical and clinical development of the concept of ankylosing spondylitis, even in its early forms. A session will follow on the multi-organ implications and the contribution of modern imaging techniques to the definition of the disease, with presentations by Professors Ciccia (Naples), Baraliakos (Bochum, Germany) and D’Agostino (“La Cattolica”, Rome).
In the afternoon, the three currently most recognized pathogenic hypotheses will be discussed with the interventions of Prof. Maria Teresa Fiorillo (“La Sapienza” Rome), Prof. Robert Colbert (NIH, Bethesda USA) and Prof. Paul Bowness (Oxford, UK). The day will close with speeches by Prof. Dafna Gladman (Toronto, Canada) and Prof. Denis Poddubnyy (Berlin, Germany) summarizing the results of two international multicentre studies on the subject, also involving the major Italian centers.
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