By Lin Chia-nan / Staff reporterA team led by Academia Sinica researchers yesterday said that it had solved a mystery surrounding the causes of ankylosing spondylitis, a spinal disease that tends to affect men aged between 20 and 40. Nearly 70,000 Taiwanese are affected by the disease, three times as many men as women, Liu said. The gene had previously been linked to the disease, but it was not known how it was caused, Liu said. Given that existing drugs — levamisole and pamidronate — have proven effective in restricting TNAP, they could possibly be utilized to produce drugs that target the spinal disease, she added. With those samples, the team conducted experiments on mice to observe the generation of pathogenic bone cells and the effect of TNAP, she said.

Source: Taipei Times December 06, 2019 15:56 UTC