Hospital for Special Surgery Research Institute Kyung-Hyun Park-Min, Ph.D., Discovers Therapeutic Targets for Treatment of Patients with Osteoporosis and Rheumatoid Arthritis
Published in Cellular & Molecular Immunology, this study is the first to identify human-osteoclast specific signatures
Hospital for Special Surgery’s. Kyung-Hyun Park-Min, Ph.D., Lead Researcher, was published in Cellular & Molecular Immunology for her team’s work in identifying human osteoclast-specific signatures as new therapeutic targets for Antisense Oligo (ASO) therapy.
In the study, Dr. Park-Min and her team examined human bone resorbing cells called osteoclasts and identified a new way to specifically target osteoclasts of patents without affecting other cells. Dysregulated osteoclasts led to bone destruction, limited mobility, and pain. Their findings lead them to believe that ASO therapy could be used to target bone diseases associated with hyperactive osteoclasts, including osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis. This is impactful as an estimated 1.3 million Americans have Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and suffer from the disease’s debilitating symptoms.
Dr. Park-Min shared, “While regulators of osteoclast formation are well defined, the cell-specific regulatory mechanism controlling osteoclasts remains fairly unknown. By defining cell-specific targets, we can provide novel therapies and improve patient outcomes.”
The team found high expression of osteoclast-specific signature in RA synovial fluid cells by real-time PCR analysis, which provided unprecedented insight that suggests manipulating SE-eRNAs may offer a novel, osteoclast-specific therapeutic strategy for treating dysregulated osteoclast-mediated bone diseases.
Dr. Park- Min’s team includes HSS Alumni Researchers, Dr. Sungho Park of Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology and Dr. Eun Young Lee of Seoul National University College of Medicine, in the Republic of Korea. Their work is supported by Rosensweig Genomics Center from The Tow Foundation.
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