Revolutionizing rheumatoid arthritis treatment by creating a personalized joint-on-chip model 4219

Abstract Description Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune inflammatory disease affecting more than 20 million people in the world. RA is characterized by joint inflammation leading to impaired mobility and chronic pain. No cure exists for RA and there are no predictors of treatment response. Thus, 40% of patients fails to achieve RA remission. Thus, innovative trials and new drugs for RA represent an urgent unmet clinical need. To this aim, we develop a personalized next-generation joint-on-chip (JoC) that hosts RA cells derived from patient biopsies. This JoC model, by accurately replicating the complexity of a rheumatoid arthritis joint, allowed patient-specific clinical trials-on-chip. We designed a 3D microfluidic platform capable of hosting and mechanically stimulating patient-derived tissues, including leukocyte-infiltrated synovial tissue and synovial fluid, as well as cartilage and bone. The platform also incorporates endothelialized blood vessel-like channels. Starting from synovial biopsy and blood samples, we bioprinted the microtissues in the chip, cultivated them under inflammatory conditions and successfully performed drug testing (methotrexate, celecoxib and a-TNFa). Our findings mark a promising start to an ambitious project and represent a significant advancement in RA therapy research. All the èartners in the FLAMIN-go project (grant agreement No. 953121) participated to this work Funding Sources The authors would like to thank European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement No. 953121 (FLAMIN-GO) for financial support. Topic Categories Technological Innovations in Immunology (TECH)