Principal Investigator Niclas Karlsson

PhD fellow Marthe Tofthagen

Collaborators Milada Hagen (Oslo metropolitan University), Colin Charnock (Oslo metropolitan University), Ida K Haugen (Diakonhjemmet hospital), Jenny Gustavsson (University of Gothenburg), Alexandra Stubbelius (Chalmers University of Technology)

Funding Internal funding and COST (NetWOArk)

Osteoarthrithis (OA) is an endemic musculoskeletal disease influencing as much as 13% of Norwegians between the ages of 24-74 years, translating to approximately 450,000 individuals. There is a current lack of OA health care options for these patients. For example, at present there are no disease-modifying OA drugs, DMOAD and biomolecular diagnostics and prognostics are lacking. Current treatment of OA is limited to management of OA-related pain, physiotherapy and ultimately replacement surgery. Most OA are idiopathic, even though risk factors have been identified such as joint trauma, age and obesity. There is a complex and to many extend an unexplored aetiology of OA, where several biomolecular endotypes and phenotypes are merged under the common OA umbrella.

Glycomics is one of the later omic techniques studying the complex carbohydrates that are present on biosurfaces. On all cell surface there is a layer of glycolipids and glycoproteins that makes up how the cell are able to interact with it surrounding, including bacterial and viral interaction. In the joints, glycoproteins are responsible for lubrication, and in our gastrointestinal tract, glycoproteins sustain a healthy symbiotic relation between the microbes in our gut and us humans as their host.

GLYCOSTAR are addressing two specific aspects of glycosylation and OA: 1) Understanding the pathway that leads to the decreased lubrication found in OA patients. The short-term objective is to identify biomarkers that can be used for early detection of lubrication deficient OA patient. The long term is to specifically target these patients with treatment that will boost their lubrication and retrieve their joint function. 2) Exploring a connection between OA and an unhealthy gut microbiota (dysbiosis). We explore the microbiome of OA patients to identify proinflammatory microbes that are capable of disrupting the intricate interplay between the mucus glycoproteins in the gut and the gut microbiome. The long- term outcome of this project is to develop nutritional guidelines for a population that displays an OA microbiota endotype. By a nutritional intervention we believe that we can restore a healthy microflora of these individuals, halting deterioration of the joints.