Methods of Determining Arthritis Classification
Background
- Chronic inflammatory arthritis is a source of morbidity for about 70,000 children in the United States alone.
- Despite differences in classification systems, subtypes of juvenile arthritis are generally characterized by the number of affected joints within six months of onset, but furthur classification can be made with early onset (before six years of age) and late onset (at six or greater).
- The number of affected joints beyond the first six months of disease is used to describe disease course, but predicting disease course for children with pauciarticular onset arthritis has not been possible.
- We must identify children with juvenile onset spondyloarthropathy that develops into axial disease.
- The measurement of cytokines and chemotactic cytokines in body fluids and synovial tissue has provided insight into the type of immune and inflammatory reaction involved and identify differences in subtypes of juvenile idiopathic arthritis, but have not been useful for diagnostic purposes becasue of (1) the variability of cytokines during a 24 hour period, (2) variability in the collection and assay methods, and (3) rapid degradation of most cytokines.
- Therefore the development of a method of determining the classification of juvenile arthritis is desirable so that patients likely to benefit from early aggressive treatment can be identified.
Description of Current Technology
A recent discovery from the laboratory of Dr. David Glass indicates that certain inflammatory related nucleotied sequences are expressed differently in the various classifications of juvenile arthritis. The expression patterns of the nucleotied sequences of interest in peripheral blood monocytes and synovial fluid mononuclear cells differ among the categories of juvenile arthritides. This new technology determines disease classification by analyzing the expression patterns of nucleotide sequences of interest from various tissues in a subject. It provides a method of analyzing disease progression, as well as the efficiency of specific modulating compounds used to treat arthritis. This new technology is also useful in analyzing the expression pattern of CXCL chemokines to classify juvenile arthritis, to predict the course of the juvenile arthritis, and/or to predict the efficacy of treatments. This technology is applicable in analyzing disease progression in juvenile arthritis. It is envisioned that a diagnostic kit could easily be developed. A provisional patent application has been filed and an appropriate patent strategy is being developed.
Objective
The Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation seeks a commercial partner as an exclusive or non-exclusive licensee to bring this technology to market.
Contact
To receive additional confidential information under a CDA, please contact:
Joseph D. Fondacaro, PhD
Director, Office of Intellectual Property & Venture Development
Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation
Mail Location 7032
3333 Burnet Avenue
Cincinnati, Ohio 45229-3039
Phone: 513-636-7695
Fax: 513-636-8453
Email: jdfonda@cchmc.org
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