I was able to track my antisynthetase syndrome back to exposure to coating sprays which I worked with. The silica nanoparticles in them gradually shut down both my muscle function and respiratory function by interfering with energy production at a cellular level. Without sufficient oxygen to operate normally my cells produced an enzyme called threonyl tRNA synthetase in order to trigger development of new blood vessels in hope that it would draw more oxygen to the cells. As my body recognised that this wasn't possible it produces the PL-7 autoimmune antibodies, associated with my own antisynthetase syndrome, in order to destroy the threonyl tRNA synthetase to try to prevent it from forming the blood vessels, which can be associated with cancer. While my own case was related to toxic exposure the condition can be completely genetic in origin, it just depends on all of the factors involved. Even though it could be genetic it doesn't mean that something can't be done about it as medical researchers are studying how some forms of genetic mutations, which result in this kind of thing, can actually be reversed to what they term the 'wild type' gene, associated with good health.