Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P01889 (ankylosing spondylitis)
 5,717 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

A refined extract from the root xylem of Tripterygium wilfordii Hook f, a perennial twining vine found in southern China, has been demonstrated to exert a powerful antifertility effect in both rats and human males. For the past 20 years, the herb has been used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, chronic hepatitis and nephritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and skin disorders. When the extract was administered to rats 6 times a week, fertility began to show a decline by the end of the 4th week of medication and all animals were infertile by the end of the 8th week. At that time, there was a dramatic decrease in the density and the motility of spermatozoa from the cauda epididymis, without apparent testicular damage. The fertility of the treated rats began to recover 4 weeks after withdrawal of the herb and was fully restored by 5 weeks. In trials conducted in rheumatoid arthritis patients who were receiving the extract, both the density and motility of ejaculated spermatozoa were significantly lower than in untreated controls and the sperm motility of the treated subjects was zero. No significant side effects were recorded: libido and potency were not affected. Preliminary findings suggest that the effective antifertility dose in men is only a third of the dose required to treat rheumatoid arthritis or skin diseases. The future use of this drug is dependent on successful isolation of the active principles and further toxicological evaluation.
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PMID:Tripterygium wilfordii, a Chinese herb effective in male fertility regulation. 331 38

In this paper, we report the presence on Epstein-Barr virus-transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines on platelets and on fibroblasts of an HLA-B27-associated cell surface complex (antigenically related to some antigens of Klebsiella K43 and K21) which is identical to or cross-reactive with the determinant present on the peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) of B27-positive patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). By contrast, no Klebsiella K43 markers could be demonstrated on the spermatozoa of B27+ AS+ individuals even though these cells expressed the HLA-B27 alloantigen. No B27-associated K43 antigen was detected on the erythrocytes of patients or of normal controls. The B27-associated membrane marker is still detectable on lymphoblastoid cell lines after 20 generations and on fibroblasts after about 10 generations. This finding implies that the continued expression of Klebsiella-modified B27 structure is generally determined and does not require the repeated exposure of the cell surface to Klebsiella antigen. These data suggest that certain non-lymphoid as well as lymphoid cells may be involved in the complex sequence of events leading to the clinical manifestation of AS.
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PMID:The distribution of a specific HLA-B27-associated cell surface component on the tissues of patients with ankylosing spondylitis. 617 70