Biomarkers of Cartilage and Surrounding Joint Tissue

Abstract

The identification and clinical demonstration of efficacy and safety of osteo- and chondro-protective drugs are met with certain difficulties. During the last few decades, the pharmaceutical industry has, in the field of rheumatology, experienced disappointments associated with the development of disease modification. Today, the vast amount of patients suffering from serious, chronic joint diseases can only be offered treatments aimed at improving symptoms, such as pain and acute inflammation, and are not aimed at protecting the joint tissue. This huge, unmet medical need has been the driver behind the development of improved analytical techniques allowing better and more efficient clinical trial design, implementation and analysis. With this review, we aim to provide a brief and general overview of biochemical markers of joint tissue, with special focus on neoepitopes. Furthermore, we highlight recent studies applying biochemical markers in joint degenerative diseases. These disorders, including osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and spondyloarthropathies, are the most predominant disorders in Europe and the USA, and have enormous socioeconomical impact.

Keywords::

• arthritis
• biochemical marker
• collagen
• extracellular matrix
• neoepitope
• rheumatic disease
• spondyloarthropathy
• synovial joint

Financial & competing interests disclosure

AS Siebuhr, Y He, NS Gudmann, A Gram, CF Kjelgaard-Petersen, P Qvist, MA Karsdal and AC Bay-Jensen are full-time employees at Nordic Bioscience, a privately owned biomedical company involved in the development of biomarkers for connective tissue diseases, as well as clinical development of drugs for rheumatic diseases. The Department of Rheumatology is partly founded by the Danish High Technology Fund, the Danish Research Foundation and the D-BAORD consortium (an EC-FP7 project). AS Siebuhr, NS Gudmann and Y He hold a PhD scholarship from the University of Southern Denmark, while conducting their research at Nordic Bioscience. MA Karsdal and P Qvist hold stocks in Nordic Bioscience. AC Bay-Jensen and MA Karsdal receive honourees from consulting pharmaceutical industries including: Biogen Idec, Abbott, Merck, Merck-Serono, Raqualia, Genentech, MedImmune, BMS and AstraZeneca. CF Kjelgaard-Petersen and A Gram have nothing to declare. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

AS Siebuhr, Y He, NS Gudmann, A Gram, CF Kjelgaard-Petersen, P Qvist, MA Karsdal and AC Bay-Jensen are full-time employees at Nordic Bioscience, a privately owned biomedical company involved in the development of biomarkers for connective tissue diseases, as well as clinical development of drugs for rheumatic diseases. The Department of Rheumatology is partly founded by the Danish High Technology Fund, the Danish Research Foundation and the D-BAORD consortium (an EC-FP7 project). AS Siebuhr, NS Gudmann and Y He hold a PhD scholarship from the University of Southern Denmark, while conducting their research at Nordic Bioscience. MA Karsdal and P Qvist hold stocks in Nordic Bioscience. AC Bay-Jensen and MA Karsdal receive honourees from consulting pharmaceutical industries including: Biogen Idec, Abbott, Merck, Merck-Serono, Raqualia, Genentech, MedImmune, BMS and AstraZeneca. CF Kjelgaard-Petersen and A Gram have nothing to declare. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.