A game changer for the treatment of osteoarthritis: a cost effective combined advanced therapy to treat knee osteoarthritis

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.