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

目前的研究目标是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，随着人口老龄化的加速，这种探针将会增加。在兔膝关节的体内外实验中，我们可以证明软骨特异性造影剂--八精氨酸肽与DOTA-Gd偶联的效果。而被设计为软骨保护剂的R8-N-TIMP3，尽管在体外组织培养实验中显示出了足够的保护作用，但在类风湿性关节炎的小鼠模型中并没有显示出足够的保护作用。在关节炎膝关节中R8-NTIMP-3长期表达后，有必要进行进一步的研究。

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.