Technologies
Rheumatologic
Periodontal disease is one of the major reasons for tooth loss in the United States and may be associated with systemic effects, including heart disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Although tooth retention has greatly improved over the past few decades, a significant percentage of older Americans do not have functional dentitions and only 42.4% of the U.S.
Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease that attacks a person’s own joints and surrounding tissue. The UIC inventors have identified ligands and receptors that are elevated in RA as targets for pharmacological treatments and clinical diagnostic assays.
siRNAare involved in the silencing of select genes, or RNA interference (RNAi). There are issues with delivering the siRNA to the targeted sites in
vivo, and once the delivery problem is resolved, the
siRNA is also problematic in that the knock-down does not always occur or the
efficiency of the knock-down is not as high as needed. TNF-α or Tumor Necrosis Factor-α is a
cytokine that is involved in systemic inflammation and the degradation of
cartilage. UIC investigators have
designed a cationic peptide conjugated hydrogel as a vehicle to deliver a T
Osteoarthritis is one of the oldest and most common types of arthritis. When cartilage breaks down in the joints, it causes bones to rub against each other, resulting in serious pain and a severe loss
of movement for the patient. The biological cause of the condition is unknown, but the incidence of osteoarthritis increases with age. Osteoarthritis is estimated to affect over 20 million Americans, with most of those sufferers over the age of 45. Women are more likely than men to develop osteoarthritis after reaching the age of 50. Currently, there is no preve
S100 proteins are small calcium-binding proteins that are found at high levels in the extracellular milieu during inflammatory conditions. The UIC inventor has discovered that these proteins possess significant anti-inflammatory and anti-hypoxic activity. It was also shown that S100 proteins inhibit the activation of peripheral neutrophils by activating a specific type of PKC known for its anti-inflammatory activity, and have a protective effect against hypoxia.
Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a 30-mer peptide hormone secreted by intestinal L-cells that bind to GLP-1 receptor on the β-cell and stimulates insulin secretion in response to ingested carbohydrates and lipids. Native GLP-1 peptide, however, has limited applications as a therapeutic agent due to its rapid elimination in vivo. A number of GLP-1 analogs with longer half-lives have been synthesized and approved for treatment. The aqueous solubility of the peptide is low.