ERAP1 at the EULAR 2014 Meeting in Paris

After I've seen a tweet by Jean-francois Carre (@jfcarre69) about ERAP1 on twitter, I researched what's behind ERAP1. ERAP1 (endoplasmic reticulum aminopeptidase 1) has a strong genetic association of with ankylosing spondylitis, which is restricted to HLA-B27 positive cases. More is told in a study by S. Keidel and colleagues (link: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23452840). The authors hypothesize that that ERAP1 inhibition could represent a future treatment strategy (in HLA B27 positive patients). Right now there should be ending a research project by the University of Queensland Diamantina Institute. Title of the project: "Development of ERAP1 inhibitors as a novel class of therapeutics for the treatment of Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) and other immune-mediated diseases"; link: http://www.di.uq.edu.au/winter-research.

And concerning ERAP1 there have been two studies at the EULAR 2014 Meeting in Paris.

N. Haroon and colleagues presented [FRI0166]: “ANKYLOSING SPONDYLITIS ASSOCIATED ERAP1 VARIANTS ALTER THE UNFOLDED PROTEIN RESPONSE”. Conclusions: “ERAP1 suppression leads to increased UPR (unfolded protein response). AS-associated ERAP1-variants, which are known to have reduced function, leads to more UPR compared to the common variant of ERAP1.” That leaves you asking for relevance, doesn’t it? Me too!  We should have read, what the authors told in background: “Unfolding of HLA-B27 and the formation of FHC can cause the release of inflammatory cytokines by triggering the unfolded protein response (UPR).” And this means that there might be a novel class of therapeutics for the treatment of Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS)

E.H. Kang and colleagues presented [AB0004]: “ERAP1 POLYMORPHISMS IN KOREAN PATIENTS WITH BEHCET’S DISEASE”. A genetic study, but of no concern with ERAP1 and ankylosing spondylitis.

My guess is that it isn’t the last we hear about ERAP1 in ankylosing spondylitis.