mRNA Blood Clots: A New Era in Osteoarthritis Treatment

Could mRNA therapies be the future of osteoarthritis treatment? Researchers at @UWMadison are developing blood clots activated with mRNA to regenerate cartilage.

Using therapeutic blood clots produced via messenger RNA, researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have created a viable method for treating osteoarthritis.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, osteoarthritis is the most prevalent type of arthritis, affecting around 33 million adults in the US. It happens when the cartilage in important joints, such as the hips and knees, degrades, limiting movement and producing discomfort and stiffness.

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‘Osteoarthritis affects 33 million adults in the US. Treatment using therapeutic blood clots activated by mRNA can be a more effective alternative to joint replacement surgery. #osteoarthritis #mRNA’

With additional research, it might eventually provide a more potent alternative to therapies including joint replacement surgery, hyaluronic acid injections, and steroid injections().

“The best-case scenario is that this could be an injectable or implantable treatment for patients who have advanced osteoarthritis,” says Murphy. “This would be an alternative to the existing methods for treatment, which generally don’t show a high level of long-term success.”

Following the lead of his lab’s previous work on mRNA-based vaccines, therapies for spinal cord injuries and more, the method relies upon mineral-coated microparticles to deliver mRNA that encodes for the production of a protein that supports cartilage formation.

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First, the team takes bone marrow aspirate (liquid bone marrow) and peripheral blood samples from a patient, mixes in the microparticles, and then forms the mixture into a blood clot. Then the mRNA-activated clot gets delivered to the site of the damage.

“This all happens in the same surgery,” says Murphy, whose lab specializes in therapies that leverage biologically inspired materials. “This is all intra-operative, and it uses materials derived from the patient.”

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Whereas existing treatments such as arthroscopic chondroplasties can lead to the formation of fresh fibrocartilage tissue, that material doesn’t boast the same mechanical properties of joint cartilage.

It also degrades more quickly. Unlike traditional tissue engineering approaches, however, the new method doesn’t require the use of a synthetic scaffold material upon which to grow cells.

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After seeing success in rabbit models, the group will test its treatment strategy in a larger animal model before proceeding toward human clinical trials.

Murphy says his group is exploring the same approach to treat large skeletal muscle and bone defects as well.

Reference:

Local delivery of TGF-β1-mRNA decreases fibrosis in osteochondral defects- (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2452199X24005255)

Source-Eurekalert