Transplantation, Arthroplasty, Inflammatory Arthritis

 

 

 

Institute Research Student Seminars

Speakers:  Catriona Barker, PhD student (Transplantation), Andrea Pujol Nicolas, MD student (Musculoskeletal) and Gillian Bell, MD student

(Musculoskeletal)

 

Venue: Seminar room L2.5, 2^nd floor, Leech Building, Medical School

Date and time:  Wednesday 21 May 2014 at 1.00pm

 

Catriona Barker will present:

 

“Chemokine post-translational modification in inflammation”.

 

Transplantation and other stressful and inflammatory conditions result in an increase in chemokine production as well as an increase in reactive species and enzymes capable of modifying such proteins. These modifications profoundly alter both the functional properties of chemokines and our ability to detect them, potentially having important implications for, for example, biomarker studies.

 

Key words:  Chemokines, inflammation, modification

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Andrea Pujol Nicolas will discuss:

 

“Removal of biofilms in orthopaedic devices with a novel marine nuclease”

 

Treatment of biofilm-associated infections of joint replacements is challenging as organisms are embedded in an extracellular matrix, which hinders antibiotic penetration.  Degradation of extracellular matrix may therefore be a key factor in dealing with biofilm associated infections. Recent research has shown extracellular DNA is a crucial component of extracellular matrix. This research will study the effect of NucB, a novel DNase secreted from a marine isolate of Bacillus licheniformis on biofilms from isolates of periprosthetic joint infections.

 

Key words: Biofilm, infection, arthroplasty

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Gillian Bell will speak on:

 

"Autologous Tolerogenic Dendritic Cells in Rheumatoid and Inflammatory Arthritis”

 

Current therapies for rheumatoid and inflammatory arthritis may non-specifically suppress the immune system with consequences such as increased risk of infection and malignancy. It is desirable to develop specific immune-modulatory therapies to specifically switch off the pathological immune response, inducing immune tolerance in an auto-antigen specific manner.  Autologous Tolerogenic dendritic cells are one such therapy, with promising results already noted in animal models of arthritis. Primary and secondary objectives are to assess safety, tolerability and feasibility of treatment; exploratory objectives seek preliminary evidence of a beneficial therapeutic effect.

 

Keywords: Tolerance, autoimmune, inflammatory arthritis

 

Chair:  Dr Amy Anderson, Research Associate