School of Medicine researchers reveal clues to new genes behind rheumatoid arthritis
June 2007Researchers at the School of Medicine have identified evidence of several new genes behind the chronic inflammatory disease rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which affects 387,000 people in the UK.
Professor Jane Worthington and her team at the University’s arthritis research campaign (arc) Epidemiology Unit made their findings as part of the largest ever study of the genetics behind common diseases.
The £9M Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC), which published its results in the journals Nature and Nature Genetics, has given a major boost to the understanding of genetics of seven common diseases, including RA. It has identified a wealth of genes implicated in coronary heart disease, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, Crohn's disease, bipolar disorder and hypertension, as well as RA.
Professor Worthington and her team have implicated several genes in the development of RA for the first time. Previously two genes were known to explain 50% of genetically determined susceptibility. Now the team have replicated their results for one of the new genes and are working to validate others.
RA is a chronic inflammatory disease that can affect nearly all joints in the body, particularly the hands and feet. Complications such as lung disease can occur. In addition, patients with RA are more likely to die from cardiovascular disease and some cancers. Some people respond well to treatment, but most suffer a lifetime of disability.
Dr Anne Barton, a clinician on the team, said: “We hope that this study may help us to discover why 40-50% of people do not respond to therapy. This therapy is expensive – £8,000 per patient per year for the newest biologic agents – and this work could show whether someone would respond well or not in advance, rather than by costly trial and error.”
Professor Worthington said: “The WTCCC has been a fantastic example of collaborative effort in the UK. It has taken us to the place we are now, more rapidly and efficiently than if we had tried to undertake this study on our own.
“We are also indebted to the arthritis research campaign (arc), which provided the funding to collect the samples used. This was a huge investment, collecting samples from RA patients over two decades, but it was the sample collection which made it a high quality study.”
