Project description
Innovative combined therapy for osteoarthritis management
Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease affecting any joint across the body and afflicting millions of people. Current interventions include analgesic, anti-inflammatory drugs and intra-articular injections of steroids and hyaluronic acid (IA-HA), with moderate efficacy. The EU-funded SINPAIN project aims to understand OA to develop a pipeline of therapies based on small interfering RNA (siRNA) for the management of knee OA and an AI tool to help clinicians in diagnostic and treatment choice. As part of it, a nanoformulation of functional IA-HA loaded with siRNA vectors targeting inflammation and pain pathways will be developed. To validate the efficacy of the identified targets, 3D culture human cell models will be developed for testing in bioreactors mimicking the joint’s environment and biomechanics.
Objective
According to the WHO Osteoarthritis (OA) is one major course of years lived with disability in the elderly and considered a high burden disease, which makes it a research priority in Europe. There is no cure for OA and SoA treatments need to be reconsidered. Current pharmacological interventions consist of analgesic, anti-inflammatory drugs as well as intraarticular steroids and hyaluronic acid (IA-HA) with moderate efficacy and associated long-term side effects. New medications are thus needed both to alleviate pain and slow down disease progression. Taking advantage of the explosion of RNA technologies in the last years, SINPAIN aims to develop a pipeline of siRNA-based therapy built on the combination of current technologies (dyanmic IA-HA and nanocarriers) that will be designed step-by-step in order to reach a successful management of inflammation and innervation therapy for the treatment of early (grade 0-1) and later stages (grade 3-4) of knee osteoarthritis (OA). To do so, a nanoformulation composed of functional IA-HA that can be loaded with vectors, for the delivery of siRNA targeting IL1? and NGF, and nanocarriers will be developed. In parallel, large effort will focus on understanding the pathological mechanisms of OA. To validate efficacy in relevant potency assays, 3D coculture models will be developed with human cells and tested in unique bioreactors mimicking joint environment and biomechanics. With the identified cell targets, IA-HA will be modified with immunomodulator peptide which will activate the adaptive immune response, responsible for OA regeneration. The 4 pipeline products of SINPAIN will be validated in vivo in a relevant OA model with SoA techniques that will demonstrate the reduced inflammation and pain, as well as the cartilage regeneration for the last product. Taking advantage of all the data obtained during the project, a decision-making tool based on machine learning will be validated to offer patients a personalized therapy.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologyenvironmental biotechnologybioremediationbioreactors
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugs
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicineimmunology
- medical and health sciencesmedical biotechnologynanomedicine
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencemachine learning
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
20014 San Sebastian
Spain