Development of cartilage directed multifunctional nano-probes for diagnosis and treatment of osteoarthritis.

目前的研究旨在开发一种新的多功能纳米探针，用于骨关节炎的诊断和治疗，这将随着人口老龄化的加速而增加。我们可以在兔膝关节的离体和体内实验中证明软骨特异性造影剂——八精氨酸肽与DOTA-Gd结合的效果。而作为软骨保护剂设计的R8-N-TIMP3，在类风湿性关节炎小鼠模型中表现出足够的保护作用，但在离体组织培养实验中表现出来。R8-NTIMP-3在关节炎膝关节中的表达是否延长有待进一步研究。

Current research aimed to develop a new multifunctional nano-probes for diagnosis and treatment of osteoarthritis, which will increase according to the acceleration of demographic aging. We could demonstrate the effect of cartilage-specific contrast agent, octaarginine peptide conjugated with DOTA-Gd, in ex vivo and in vivo experiments of rabbit knee joints. While R8-N-TIMP3, designed as a cartilage protective agent, did not show sufficient protective effect in a mouse model of rheumatoid arthritis although it showed in ex vivo tissue culture experiments. Further study is necessary after a prolonged expression of R8-NTIMP-3 in the arthritic knee joints.