A method for treating or preventing osteoarthritis includes promoting the expression of STAMP2 in chondrocyte. Osteoarthritis is diagnosed by measuring an expression level of STAMP2 or an amount of STAMP2 protein in chondrocyte, and comparing the measured results with that in a control sample. A therapeutic agent for osteoarthritis is screened by treating chondrocyte with a candidate agent, measuring an expression level of STAMP2 or an amount of STAMP2 protein in the chondrocyte, and identifying a candidate agent as the therapeutic agent when the measured expression level of STAMP2 or the measured amount of STAMP2 protein is increased in the chondrocyte as compared to the chondrocyte before treatment with the candidate agent. Measuring the expression level of STAMP2 or the amount of extracellularly secreted STAMP2 protein is highly useful for diagnosing osteoarthritis in a rapid and convenient manner using a biological sample such as blood.

The invention relates to agents and methods for treating or preventing inflammatory conditions or diseases.

The present invention provides citrullinated 14-3-3 peptides and antibodies thereto and methods of using same to evaluate arthritic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.

The present invention provides targeting probe, imaging probes, and probes for use as a medicament to treat damaged cartilage, where the probe targets injured tissue and can then be imaged and/or release agents to trigger the migration of surrounding chondrocytes from healthy tissue to injured tissue and/or recruit synovial stem cells.

Methods of determining the risk of developing osteoarthritis (OA) and/or progression to total joint replacement (TJR) and determining the treatment response to an NGF antagonist or NSAID treatment in a subject by determination of an OA proteomic risk score for the subject are presented herein.

Antibodies against citrullinated protein antigens (ACPA) have shown their relevance for the diagnosis and possibly pathogenesis in arthritis. Described are means and methods for determining antibodies against homocitrulline-containing proteins or carbamylated proteins/peptides (anti-CarP) for the classification of individuals suffering from, or at risk of suffering from, arthritis.

The present invention relates generally to methods for diagnosing the presence or the risk of development or the therapy control of spondyloarthritis (Spa), in particular, of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and undifferentiated spondyloarthritis in a subject, in particular in mammals. In addition, the present invention relates to test kits for use in the diaposis of the presence or the risk of development, or for the therapy control of Spa, like AS and undifferentiated spondyloarthritis, in a subject. In particular, the present invention relates to a method for diagnosing the presence or the risk of development, or for the therapy control of Spa, like AS and undifferentiated spondyloarthritis, it a subject analysing for the presence of autoantibodies against CD74 and/or IKBKB in a subject. The presence of autoantibodies against CD74 and/or IKBKB is indicative for the presence or the risk of development, or for the therapy control of Spa, like AS and undifferentiated spondyloarthritis. In particular, detection of the presence of autoantibodies against CD74 and/or IKBKB allows early diagnostic of Spa, in particular, AS and undifferentiated spondyloarthritis.

Disclosed is the novel use of TRIM24 and RIP3 as biomarkers for diagnosing osteoarthritis, in which it is first identified that TRIM24 and RIP3 can be used as biomarkers for diagnosing osteoarthritis by confirming the tendency of TRIM24 expression to decrease and RIP3 expression to increase at the onset of osteoarthritis. These two proteins are useful in confirming the change in the expression level from the onset of osteoarthritis, thus enabling early diagnosis of osteoarthritis and effectively blocking the progression of osteoarthritis at an early stage.

The invention relates to a lateral flow assay device for the detection of a target peptide in a liquid sample, comprising: (a) a solid support, (b) a sample pad for initially receiving and optionally pre-treating the sample at a first end of the solid support, (c) an absorbent pad at a second end of the solid support, (d) a conjugate pad comprising in a dry state a mobilizable conjugate of a particle and the target peptide, wherein the target peptide conjugated to said particle is biotinylated and the particle comprises on its surface a biotin-binding protein, (e) a target peptide reaction membrane comprising, (i) a capture region comprising an immobilized first capture reagent against the target peptide, and (ii) optionally a control region comprising an immobilized second capture reagent against particle control conjugate, wherein the sample pad, the conjugate pad, the reaction membrane and the absorbent pad are mounted to the solid support to permit capillary flow from the sample pad to the reaction membrane through the conjugate pad, and wherein the loading of the particle with the target peptide is from about 20% to about 55% of the maximal loading capacity of the particle.

The present invention provides new protease resistant polypeptides, as well as compositions and methods for treating, ameliorating or preventing conditions related to joint damage, including acute joint injury and arthritis.