AsianScientist (Feb. 4, 2016) – Japanese researchers suppressed the progression of osteoarthritis by injecting transcription factor messenger RNA (mRNA) required for cartilage formation into mice knee joints.
Degeneration or damage of the cartilage in our joints, or articular cartilage, arises from a variety of causes and results in osteoarthritis (OA). In aging societies, OA is one of the major diseases shortening the life expectancy of the elderly and threatening their quality of life. However, there is currently no cure for it.
In the study, published in Scientific Reports, University of Tokyo researchers injected mRNA of the transcription factor RUNX1, which supports cartilage formation, into knee joints of mice that were surgically engineered to develop OA. This was done using a polyplex nanomicelle-based mRNA delivery system, a method that the team had previously developed.
After a month of regular injections, they found that OA was significantly suppressed in the RUNX1 mRNA-injected group compared to the control group. In addition, increased levels of type II collagen, a major cartilage matrix protein; SOX9, a transcription factor necessary for cartilage formation; and a protein that increases when cells are proliferating, proliferating cell nuclear antigen, were found in the articular cartilage of the RUNX1 mRNA-injected group.
Credit: Aini Hailati
“These results suggest that the mRNA delivered to the joint is translated to produce the RUNX1 protein, which … regulates the expression of a set of genes involved in the maintenance and proliferation of cartilage cells,” says Professor Shinsuke Ohba, the corresponding author of the study.
Besides osteoperosis, their findings should find applications in curative treatments or tissue regenerative therapies for a variety of musculoskeletal degenerative diseases, Ohba added.
The article can be found at: Aini et al. (2016) Messenger RNA Delivery of a Cartilage-anabolic Transcription Factor as a Disease-modifying Strategy for Osteoarthritis Treatment.
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Source: University of Tokyo; Photo: Shutterstock.
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