Transcriptome profile of extracellular vesicles derived from the synovial fluid and blood of osteoarthritis patients

Abstract

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic, musculoskeletal disease that affects quite a sizeable portion of the older generation. Late-stage OA has a considerable negative impact on the quality of life; however, it is very difficult to diagnose OA in the early stages. Therefore, there is a need to find new non-invasive diagnostic methods for early disease detection. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are capable of protecting their RNA cargo during transportation and for this reason, there is a growing interest in EV-RNAs as potential biomarkers for different diseases and conditions. miRNAs have been shown to be dysregulated in the synovial fluid (SF) of OA patients and have been presented as potential biomarkers. miRNAs such as miR-146a and miR-26b have been shown to play a potential role in OA pathogenesis and have also been found to be significantly dysregulated in OA-SF. However, as there is a lack of research done on blood-EVs, further experiments need to be done in order to determine if the SF-EV profile reflects in blood-EVs