Shared Pathways Between Ankylosing Spondylitis and Cardiovascular Disease: A Systems Biology Approach
Main Article Content
Abstract
Ankylosing spondylitis (AS) is a chronic inflammatory disease primarily affecting the axial skeleton, with patients exhibiting a significantly elevated risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD)1. This review explores the shared pathways between AS and CVD through a systems biology approach, integrating multi-omics data to uncover common molecular mechanisms such as inflammation, immune dysregulation, and metabolic disturbances2. Key findings highlight the role of endothelial dysfunction, genetic factors such as HLA-B27, and environmental influences such as gut microbiota in linking these conditions [3]. Systems biology tools, including network analysis and pathway enrichment, reveal potential therapeutic targets like TNF-α inhibitors and statins for dual disease management4. The study underscores the need for further experimental validation to translate these insights into clinical applications, offering new avenues for risk assessment and personalized treatment strategies5.
Keywords:
Ankylosing spondylitis, Cardiovascular disease, Systems biology, Inflammation, Endothelial dysfunction
Article Details
How to Cite
MOHAMMAD, Adawi; AWNI, Yousef; AHLAM, Adawi.
Shared Pathways Between Ankylosing Spondylitis and Cardiovascular Disease: A Systems Biology Approach.
Medical Research Archives, [S.l.], v. 13, n. 8, aug. 2025.
ISSN 2375-1924.
Available at: <https://esmed.org/MRA/mra/article/view/6706>. Date accessed: 06 dec. 2025.
doi: https://doi.org/10.18103/mra.v13i8.6706.
Section
Research Articles
The Medical Research Archives grants authors the right to publish and reproduce the unrevised contribution in whole or in part at any time and in any form for any scholarly non-commercial purpose with the condition that all publications of the contribution include a full citation to the journal as published by the Medical Research Archives.
References
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2. Feng X, Wang C, Ji B, Qiao J et al. CD_99 G1 neutrophils modulate osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells in the pathological process of ankylosing spondylitis. 2024.
3. Yu Z, Hong X, Zhang X, Zheng F et al. Global Proteomic Analyses Reveals Abnormal Immune Regulation in Patients with New Onset Ankylosing Spondylitis. 2022.
4. Liao HT, Tsai CY, Lai CC, Hsieh SC et al. The Potential Role of Genetics, Environmental Factors, and Gut Dysbiosis in the Aberrant Non-Coding RNA Expression to Mediate Inflammation and Osteoclastogenic/Osteogenic Differentiation in Ankylosing Spondylitis. 2022.
5. Tuncay Duruöz M, Bodur H, Ataman Şebnem, Gürer G et al. Cross-sectional analysis of cardiovascular disease and risk factors in patients with spondyloarthritis: real-life evidence from biostar nationwide registry. 2024.
6. P Thomas G, Duan R, R Pettit A, Weedon H et al. Expression profiling in spondyloarthropathy synovial biopsies highlights changes in expression of inflammatory genes in conjunction with tissue remodelling genes. 2013.
7. Yuan FC, Li B, Zhang LJ. Identification of differential modules in ankylosing spondylitis using systemic module inference and the attract method. 2018.
8. Nair J, Ghatge M, V. Kakkar V, Shanker J. Network Analysis of Inflammatory Genes and Their Transcriptional Regulators in Coronary Artery Disease. 2014.
9. Watad A, Bridgewood C, Russell T, Marzo-Ortega H et al. The Early Phases of Ankylosing Spondylitis: Emerging Insights from Clinical and Basic Science. 2018.
10. Zhang M, Zhou J, Wang H, He L et al. Exploration of the shared pathways and common biomarker PAN3 in ankylosing spondylitis and ulcerative colitis using integrated bioinformatics analysis. 2023.
11. Hintenberger R, Affenzeller B, Vladychuk V, Pieringer H. Cardiovascular risk in axial spondyloarthritis—a systematic review. 2023.
12. Huang F, Su Z, Yu C. An Important Role in Novel Immune Mechanism and Diagnostic Model of Ankylosing Spondylitis: The CeRNA-ADRB2 Network. 2023.
13. Łosińska K, Korkosz M, Kwaśny-Krochin B. Endothelial dysfunction in patients with ankylosing spondylitis. 2019.
14. A. Maron B, A. Leopold J. Systems biology: An emerging strategy for discovering novel pathogenetic mechanisms that promote cardiovascular disease. 2016.
15. Kim KJ, Lee S, Kim WU. Applications of systems approaches in the study of rheumatic diseases. 2015.
16. Dolcino M, Tinazzi E, Pelosi A, Patuzzo G et al. Gene expression analysis before and after treatment with adalimumab in patients with ankylosing spondylitis identifies molecular pathways associated with response to therapy. 2017.
17. Batko B, Maga P, Urbanski K, Ryszawa-Mrozek N et al. Microvascular dysfunction in ankylosing spondylitis is associated with disease activity and is improved by anti-TNF treatment. 2018.
18. Bilski R, Kamiński P, Kupczyk D, Jeka S, Baszyński J, Tkaczenko H, Kurhaluk N. Environmental and genetic determinants of ankylosing spondylitis. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2024 Jul 17;25(14):7814.
19. Hintenberger R, Affenzeller B, Vladychuk V, Pieringer H. Cardiovascular risk in axial spondyloarthritis—a systematic review. Clinical Rheumatology. 2023 Oct;42(10):2621-33.
20. Conrad N, Verbeke G, Molenberghs G, Goetschalckx L, Callender T, Cambridge G, Mason JC, Rahimi K, McMurray JJ, Verbakel JY. Autoimmune diseases and cardiovascular risk: a population-based study on 19 autoimmune diseases and 12 cardiovascular diseases in 22 million individuals in the UK. The Lancet. 2022 Sep 3;400(10354):733-43.
21. Zhong Y, Chen Y, Zhang X, Cai W, Zhao C, Zhao W. No evidence of a causal relationship between ankylosing spondylitis and cardiovascular disease: a two-sample Mendelian randomization study. Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine. 2023 Oct 12; 10:1243867.
22. Xiao L, Lin S, Zhan F. Effects of ankylosing spondylitis on cardiovascular disease: aMendelian randomization study. Frontiers in Genetics. 2024.
23. Hwang MC, Ridley L, Reveille JD. Ankylosing spondylitis risk factors: a systematic literature review. Clinical rheumatology. 2021.
24. Bello AU, Harun S, Aleng NA, Sakthiswary R, Mohamed-Hussein ZA. Identification of shared proteins between ankylosing spondylitis and its comorbidities through network biology. Network Modeling Analysis in Health Informatics and Bioinformatics. 2024 Sep 20;13(1):51.
25. Xiong Y, Cai M, Xu Y, Dong P, Chen H, He W, Zhang J. Joint together: the etiology and pathogenesis of ankylosing spondylitis. Frontiers in Immunology. 2022 Oct 17; 13:996103.
26. Chaudhary H, Bohra N, Syed K, Donato A, Murad MH, Karmacharya P. All‐cause and cause‐specific mortality in psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis: a systematic review and meta‐analysis. Arthritis care & research. 2023 May;75(5):1052-65.
27. Zhang Y, Liu W, Lai J, Zeng H. Genetic associations in ankylosing spondylitis: circulating proteins as drug targets and biomarkers. Frontiers in Immunology. 2024.
28. Nancy Z, Yan L, Hui S, Paul B et al. From the genetics of ankylosing spondylitis to new biology and drug target discovery. Frontiers in Immunology. 2021.