Disease information

Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic and inflammatory rheumatic disorder primarily affecting the spine (Wen et al., 2017). The most common features of this disease are chronic back pain and progressive spinal stiffness, such as reduced mobility and axial deformity, which lead to poor quality of life (Zão & Cantista, 2017).

AS is a complex and debilitating disease which is part of a group of related diseases known as spondyloarthropathies (Inman, 2006). Globally, the prevalence of AS is estimated to be between 0.1-1.4 percent (Dean et al., 2014). In approximately 60% of patients with AS, subclinical gut inflammation is observed implicating a potential gut-joint axis in AS pathogenesis. (Van Praet, Jacques, Van den Bosch, & Elewaut, 2012).

The exact mechanism of how AS is implicated in the gut microbiota is unknown. However, several mechanisms have been suggested as to how the gut microbiome affects this disease such as alterations of intestinal permeability, stimulation of immune response and molecular mimicry (Yang et al., 2016).