Accelerating drug discovery and therapeutic targets selection for osteoarthritis with a Joint-on-a-Chip Osteoarthritis Microfluidic Platform (JOMIP)

Current osteoarthritis (QA) treatment strategies primarily focus on symptom management rather than addressing the underlying causes of the disease. These approaches typically involve pain relief medications, physical therapy, and surgical interventions. Although progress has been made in the last years, no drug is commercially available to arrest the disease. This is partially due to the inappropriate pre-clinical models for early drug development phases. Current Organ-on-a chip (OoC) platforms in the OA field primarily focus on assessing cartilage break down without considering the interplay between cartilage cells and other joint tissues. We will develop a novel and user-friendly joint-on-a-chip osteoarthritis microfluidic platform (JOMIP) that recapitulates the biological and mechanical joint environment.

Knee OA affects over 10% of the global population accounting for more than 18 billion euro in direct and indirect costs in the Netherlands alone. The disease affects different joint tissues primarily causing cartilage degradation leading to pain, stiffness, and impaired mobility. The incidence of OA is expected to rise with the aging population, posing a significant public health challenge.

Recently, the infrapatellar fat pad (IPFP) has been shown to be instrumental in the joint homeostasis, orchestrating pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion and promoting cartilage breakdown. Hence, its pro-inflammatory role makes the IPFP a significant target for developing specific OA therapies. JOMIP will focus on the incorporation of patient IPFP cells and primary cartilage cells with controlled mechanical load to mimic knee motion and inflammatory stimulation with the possibility of scaling-up for high-throughput drug screening.

By using patient-derived cells, JOMIP will facilitate the selection of personalized therapeutic targets and the development of new drugs to treat the OA disease. Ultimately, our OoC platform seeks to revolutionize OA management by providing a new OA pre-clinical model, leading to more effective treatments, reducing healthcare costs while improving life expectancy.

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