Osteoarthritis Center of Excellence Research Story
Ourosteoarthritis(OA)center of excellence(COE) is currently funding three Clinical Trial Network demonstration studies that may lead to better diagnosis and earlier treatments for OA. Researchers from six different institutions will collaborate in various aspects of these cutting-edge studies. The three studies are connected to one another for a common purpose and they build on previous research funded by the Arthritis Foundation. This is the second in a series of three blogs describing these studies.Read the first one here.
Dr. Virginia Byers Kraus is working to identify biochemical biomarkers found in synovial (joint) fluid and urine from post-traumatic OA patients who have suffered anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) rupture. The samples used for this study come from samples collected from a2013 Arthritis Foundation-funded projectthat validated using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to measure the molecular changes that begin to occur in joints immediately after an ACL tear.
Urine and synovial fluid (from damaged knee joints) were collected from patients at five timepoints: baseline (less than 4 weeks after the joint injury), during surgery (about 6 weeks after the injury), 6 weeks after surgery, 6 months after surgery, and 1 year after surgery. The analysis of the 177 urine samples and 101 synovial fluid samples will take about 6 months.
这个项目的目标是评估哪些生化标志物与ACL破裂后的炎症和软骨破裂有关。该团队正在努力确定哪些生物标志物对预测受伤后骨性关节炎的风险最关键，并确定开始治疗的最早和最佳时间点。
“对于心脏病发作，我们会立即治疗以获得最佳效果，”克劳斯博士解释说。“我们希望证明关节损伤也是如此。重要的是从受伤到医疗干预的时间。我们必须及早治疗以防止进一步的损害。我们目前看到的是，大约一半的前交叉韧带撕裂手术患者最终会发展成更严重的疾病。”
By identifying biomarkers that appear early following an injury and by using more sensitive MRI imaging techniques, researchers hope to identify the individuals at highest risk for more serious joint disease and to determine the “window of opportunity” for providing treatment to prevent subsequent OA. Earlier interventions might include new drugs designed to halt the disease process and other anti-inflammatory drugs, thus reducing the need forjoint replacements后来又提高了生活质量。
Dr. Kraus was inspired to study OA by her father. Her father, a surgeon during the Vietnam War, damaged his hip and as a result endured 3 hip replacements over the rest of his life. While her father continued working into his 70’s, Dr. Kraus felt frustrated watching his daily suffering and the suffering of her clinic patients. It’s pushed her to want to make a difference and stop OA in its tracks.
“Osteoarthritis is a big and challenging beast -it’s the most prevalent disease in the world,” she explained. “It affects mobility, which in turn affects your heart and many other aspects of your health. We’ve begun to see success in understanding many types of arthritis, but up to now, we haven’t been as successful with OA. It’s so frustrating for me to see the suffering caused by this disease.”
我们很自豪地称克劳斯博士为"是"的捍卫者。她解释了为什么喜欢向我们提交她的研究项目:“关节炎基金会一直保持着寻找治疗方法的长期兴趣。它致力于建立在之前的创新研究的基础上——很难为这些类型的研究获得资金。基金会已经创建了一个灵活的机制来进行这类研究，并推动它更快地向前发展。这让我们更接近于更快地为患者找到治疗方法。”
Dr. Kraus, the principal investigator in this project, is a professor of Medicine, Pathology and Orthopaedic Surgery at Duke University in Durham, NC. She will be working with other researchers from Duke University, as well as researchers from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in NYC, and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.
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