Hundreds of genetic links to osteoarthritis unlocked

Study paves the way for personalised therapies for osteoarthritis sufferer

Groundbreaking research has identified over 900 genetic links to osteoarthritis, including 500 previously undiscovered, in a study involving Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Published in the Nature journal, the research represents the largest genome-wide association study ever conducted on osteoarthritis.

Using genetic data from nearly two million people, researchers compared DNA from almost half a million individuals with osteoarthritis to 1.5 million without. They uncovered 962 genetic variations associated with the condition, 513 of which were newly identified.

Osteoarthritis, the leading cause of global disability and chronic pain, currently affects around 595 million people worldwide, with numbers projected to reach 1 billion by 2050. Despite its prevalence, there are no available treatments that modify the disease. The findings of this study could potentially change that, offering hope for drug development and personalised therapies.

By integrating biomedical datasets, researchers also identified 700 genetic disease-associated variants linked to osteoarthritis development. Eight biological processes, including the circadian clock and developmental signalling pathways, were found to play key roles in disease mechanisms. Moreover, 10% of the identified genes encode proteins targeted by drugs approved for other conditions, which could expedite the development of treatments.

Professor Mark Wilkinson, Professor of Orthopaedics at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Sheffield, highlighted the significance of the findings: “These are hugely important findings which open up exciting new avenues in our search to find new drug treatments for the millions of people living with osteoarthritis.”

The study, involving genetic data from over 1,000 Sheffield volunteers, was led by Helmholtz Munich, Germany’s largest scientific research organisation. It promises to transform care for osteoarthritis sufferers globally.