OSTEOIMMUNE

OSTEOIMMUNE - Unraveling the Interactions between the Immune System and Bone

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Inflammatory rheumatic diseases affect millions of European citizens causing chronic pain, disability and premature death. Curative treatments are lacking. Conventional research often focuses on one single organ system such as the bone or the immune system and. ignores interactions between organ systems. OSTEOIMMUNE is a supra-disciplinary training network that targets this gap by providing comprehensive, structured and coherent training. The scientific training within OSTEOIMMUNE reflects the participants‘ common research programme aiming to unravel the interactions between the immune system and the skeleton. A group of outstanding European scientists in genetics, (osteo-) immunology, rheumatology and drug development has joined to form OSTEOIMMUNE to provide 12 ESRs and 2 ERs with training in a broad range of laboratory and complementary skills and capacities. OSTEOIMMUNE participants represent 7 of Europe's most active academic centres in arthritis research and 3 highly innovative biotech and pharmaceutical companies. All have contributed important concepts to the field, five groups have earned the title „Centre of excellence“. OSTEOIMMUNE participants have an outstanding history of successful collaboration which is reflected in numerous influential joint papers and common efforts in national and European networks (e.g. DFG: IMMUNOBONE, BMBF: IMMUNOPAIN, FP6: EURO-RA, AUTO-CURE, FP7: MASTER-SWITCH) and have trained numerous highly successful ESRs and ERs. Our young investigators will leave the network after successful completion of their training with a set of aptitudes that will enable them to be instrumental in developing curative therapies towards rheumatic diseases, be it in an academic, clinical or industrial setting. Moreover, OSTEOIMMUNE will establish a long-lasting consortium for cutting edge research in the field of osteoimmunology, leading to accelerated and integrated discoveries, which can become commercially exploitable first by European industry.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Immune cells are generated from haematopoietic stem cells housed in special cavities within the bone. However, in rheumatic disease immune cells can attack and destroy the bone.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Millions of European citizens suffer from inflammatory rheumatic disease, which causes severe disability and premature death. As there is no definitive cure, we urgently need to understand how the immune system interacts with the skeleton to cause bone and cartilage loss.

To address this challenge, the EU-funded http://www.osteoimmune.eu/ (OSTEOIMMUNE) (Unraveling the interactions between the immune system and bone) project brought together leading European experts in the field. Their primary objective is to define the key molecular players that drive rheumatic disease and elucidate the genetic control of the immune and skeletal systems.

To characterise the genetic regulation of bone destruction, the consortium performed transcriptomic analysis of T cells alongside genomic and epigenetic changes in fibroblasts. They also analysed various effector mechanisms implicated in joint destruction to understand how inflammation drives osteoclast activation.

Further molecular investigation aims to shed light into the regulatory role of miRNA molecules. Using murine models of arthritis, researchers will obtain miRNA patterns and compare them to normal cells to identify differentially expressed miRNAs.

The consortium is also exploring anti-inflammatory antibodies as a preventive approach for reducing disease severity and bone erosion in mouse models of arthritis. Additionally, inhibition of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-mediated signalling is considered a promising approach given the involvement of TNF in chronic inflammation.

Among the most interesting aspects studied under the OSTEOIMMUNE project is the long-term persistence of pathogenic memory T cells. The consortium plans to elucidate if pathogenic T cells reside in the bone marrow and sustain peripheral effector cells.

Taken together, the activities of the study will provide important insight into the interaction between the immune system and bone tissue. With dissemination events like 'Day of Immunology' and 'Researchers Night', as well as social media promotion, the project is anticipated to receive great interest.