TRANSCRIPT
About one in five people in Australia are affected by osteoarthritis.
Globally - it affects 600 million people.
At the Queensland-based medical research institute QIMR Berghofer, scientist Associate Professor Michelle Lupton was a part of the world’s largest study of the genetics of osteoarthritis.
"Osteoarthritis affects people from all different cultures around the world, this study mainly focused on people of European ancestry, but it also included people of other ancestries. In this particular study we didn't see any differences between or kind of any different findings from these other ancestries. But this is probably just due to the fact that the sample size is much smaller. So one of the important kind of future work that needs to be done is looking more in other ancestries."
The findings from an international research team led by in Germany, and involving scientists, have been published in - a science newsletter available online.
The study has identified more than 500 previously unknown genetic links to the disease, and hundreds of potential new drug targets that could fast track the development of more effective treatments.
"The study looks particularly at drug repurposing. This is the idea where instead of developing new drugs, you can use genetics to test whether you think current drugs would be useful in treating arthritis. So basically, we carried out screen and identified more than 270 approved drugs that could target protein that has been shown to be important in the disease. So this opens up these opportunities to repurpose drugs that can accelerate new treatments.]
Professor Lupton says factors such as age, environment, joint overuse, obesity, family history and genetics are among some of the significant factors they identified.
Musculoskeletal Health Australia or MHA is a consumer focused organisation.
They support those living with musculoskeletal diseases such as osteoarthritis.
Helen Jentz is the CEO at MHA. She says osteoarthritis is the most common joint disease in the country.
"It's around the joints. So think of things like your knee joints, your hip joints. So what happens is the cartilage starts to break down. The cartilage is important because it helps with movement, and it helps with us being able to do things like walk, run, bear weight. And osteoarthritis impacts the cartilage and breaks it down so it's hard when the bone is rubbing together and that's what causes the pain and disability."
Ms Jentz says more than two million people in Australia suffer from osteoarthritis.
"In Australia there are approximately 2.2 million people who are estimated to have osteoarthritis. And this is expected to increase certainly because we have an aging population here in Australia. But the other critical factor is that as our obesity level increase so does the prevalence of osteoarthritis.”
She says osteoarthritis can affect anyone at any age.
"With the increasing prevalence of obesity and overweight in Australia, osteoarthritis and other musculoskeletal diseases in Australia are actually starting to affect people at younger and younger ages."
Ms Jentz commends the study saying MHA will take individualised treatment from that research.
Dr Leticia Deveza is a rheumatologist based in Sydney.
She deals with rheumatological conditions including rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.
Patients are usually referred to her after seeing a doctor or a physiotherapist if their pain is not decreasing.
Dr Deveza talks about the difference between osteoarthritis and osteoporosis.
"Osteoarthritis is a joint disease affecting joints in the body - most commonly the hands, the spine, the knees and the hips. While osteoporosis is a disease of the bone metabolism that affects the quality of the bone - predisposes to fracture but is usually asymptomatic."
The study found that the number of patients is predicted to increase to one billion by 2050, making osteoarthritis one of the fastest growing health conditions in the world.
"Genetic plays a very big role in osteoarthritis, we know that genetic studies that certain ethnicities are more proposed to getting osteoarthritis particularly the joint in the hips. But it's a disease that affects the population globally -- can affect all ranges. Genetic studies are important to identify the target for the development of the drugs trying to find a cure for osteoarthritis."
The researchers uncovered 513 new genetic associations linked to osteoarthritis, bringing the total number of known genetic links to 962.
It also pinpointed eight biological processes involved in osteoarthritis development, providing further targets for therapeutic interventions.
These processes include the circadian rhythm which is the body’s internal clock, and glial cell functions which support the nervous system.
Professor Lupton says her study talks about important disease pathways that may not have been previously looked at.
"One example is circadian rhythm which is our bodies internal clock that regulates sleeping pattern. And the study showed that circadian rhythm seems to have an effect on your rest that could be the disruptions of your circadian rhythm could affect your bones and joint tissues to repair. So that's kind of a new avenue of research that could lead to potentially new drugs."
The new insights into the genetic architecture of osteoarthritis could lead to more personalised treatment strategies and help improve the design of clinical trials.
The genome-wide association (GWAS) study is the largest ever performed for osteoarthritis.
It analysed data from genetic samples donated by nearly two million people globally, including nearly 490,000 people diagnosed with the disease.
The datasets included thousands of Australians who participated in other QIMR Berghofer-led studies, funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
Musculoskeletal Health Australia CEO Helen Jentz urges anyone with questions related to musculoskeletal health to reach out to her team.
"It's a free national Healthline that anyone can ring and talk to a qualified healthcare professional about their musculoskeletal health or about their musculoskeletal diseases. And what we are very focused on is patients and consumer empowerment. So our focus is about providing people with the support and information that they need so that they can make informed decisions about how they manage their musculoskeletal health."
Ms Jentz says at MHA they are research and evidence based providing people with the right tools to make informed decisions about their nutrition, mental health and musculoskeletal health.
"One of the big campaigns that we run each year is called The World's Biggest Sit-In. And what that’s about chair-based exercise. And it's a challenge to everyone to think differently about how they move and how they engage with physical activity. And a first step to doing that could be a chair-based workout. So, you can actually sit in a chair, move, build up a bit of a sweat, build up some cardio, but you're still engaging in movement which is good for your musculoskeletal health."
Dr Deveza talks about the importance of exercise and weight management in treating osteoarthritis.
"In terms of the treating of osteoarthritis we highlight the importance of physical therapy, exercise therapy, and weight management because these are very important factors that drive the progression of the disease with the appropriate exercise program, with the weight management guided by your health professional patients help. Health professionals’ symptoms can improve greatly in the majority of patients."
Adding that it's important to tailor the treatments accordingly to cater to each patient's capability.
"When we see the results of this most recent study showing these several different genetic associations - the importance is to really highlight that we should be personalising treatment and really be identifying what specifically the risk factors are in each individual patients we can better tailor treatment."
