Project Funded by ANRF

Congratulations to Dr. Amanda Ali on being awarded a $100,000 grant from the Arthritis National Research Foundation (ANRF). The abstract of the project is included below:

Abstract: Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a painful disease that is associated with reduced quality-of-life and increased all-cause death, yet there is no known cure and no effective disease-modifying drugs. There are interventions to manage symptoms and slow disease progression, but these interventions are often not used, in part because of the lack of biomarkers to diagnose knee OA. MicroRNAs are small molecules found throughout the body that are known to be good biomarkers. Since microRNAs have previously been shown to contribute to OA, we examined the expression of circulating microRNAs and discovered miR-126-3p to be increased in blood samples from individuals with knee OA compared to those without knee OA in four independent groups from four different countries. Based on these findings, the goal of this study is to explore the role of miR-126-3p as a potential diagnostic biomarker and mechanistic driver in knee OA. To do this, we have established an OA biospecimen repository comprising blood, synovial fluid, cartilage, bone, synovium, meniscus, fat, ligament, and/or muscle from knee OA, hip OA, and/or non-OA controls. We plan to investigate the expression of miR-126-3p and its gene targets in each of these biospecimens to determine the role miR-126-3p may be playing in knee OA. We suspect miR-126-3p comes from the knee tissues and can target other joints (e.g. hip) to promote blood vessel growth, which can make OA worse. This research is important because microRNAs can be used to diagnose knee OA and can be targeted to develop the first disease-modifying OA drugs. As such, this research is expected to reduce the public health burden created by undiagnosed and untreated knee OA.