SpA is a chronic inflammatory rheumatic disease. Reliable diagnosis and prognosis biomarkers are lacking and there is a need for new treatments. Given the strong genetic background of spondyloarthritis with more than 50 genetic factors of susceptibility already identified, use of genetic data is an appealing approach to better understand the disease pathogeny and to improve its management. The possibility to identify groups of patients with similar clinical and genetic characteristics might be the first step toward precision of medicine and help to propose more tailored treatment strategies.
The main objective is to translate the results of genomics studies in spondyloarthritis into clinical benefits. In particular we aim at identifying genetic factors associated with disease severity and at discovering new treatment targets.
This study involves established patient cohorts and translational research. It is difficult to include patients at this stage into the design of the study. We have however approached two patient representatives who agreed to help us writing our patient information sheets and communicating our results.