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The William Harvey Research Institute - Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry

Queen Mary University of London is playing a key role in major new European research initiative to combat Multi-Drug Resistant Rheumatoid Arthritis (MDR-RA)

The MDR-RA (Multi-Drug Resistance in Rheumatoid Arthritis) project, with a total budget of €8.4 million, is funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe programme and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation. 

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This international effort, involving 23 partners from 12 European countries, aims to identify the molecular mechanisms underlying drug resistance in difficult-to-treat rheumatoid arthritis and integrate them with clinical risk factors to develop personalised predictive models and optimise patient treatments, ultimately reducing the socioeconomic impact of the disease.

Professor Costantino Pitzalis, Project Coordinator, Head of the Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology at Queen Mary University of London, and Full Professor of Rheumatology at Humanitas University said: “This project represents a fundamental step forward in understanding the molecular basis of Multi-Drug Resistance in Rheumatoid Arthritis. Through a precision medicine approach, we aim to transform patient care with more targeted and effective therapies”.

Prof. Pitzalis also leads the Musculoskeletal Theme of the NIHR Barts Biomedical Research Centre, which provides the opportunity to tackle health inequalities and deliver pioneering, innovative healthcare to the people of east London and beyond, by pursuing research to identify patients at risk of rapid progression, uncover the mechanisms driving disease development and treatment resistance, and discover novel therapies. The MDR-RA project aligns perfectly with these goals, exemplifying the BRC's commitment to advancing precision medicine in musculoskeletal health.

Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common chronic inflammatory joint disease, affecting approximately 1% of the adult population, with about 3 million people impacted in Europe. The condition, which significantly affects the lives of patients, is potentially disabling and responsible for considerable economic and social costs, estimated at €55 billion annually in Europe. The challenge becomes particularly complex when patients develop resistance to existing therapies, highlighting the urgent need for new and innovative treatment approaches.

The mission of the MDR-RA project is to provide new, personalised, and more effective solutions for these patients by integrating clinical and molecular data, particularly through the study of the synovial membrane, the disease’s target tissue. Synovial biopsy, a minimally invasive procedure still underutilised in routine clinical practice, allows for the analysis of joint tissues with highly advanced technologies to detect significant molecular biomarkers, not only of the inflammatory type, that can guide therapy selection.

These data, combined with patients’ clinical information, will be processed using artificial intelligence to create a comprehensive predictive algorithm called iCare-RA. This tool will be central to personalising treatments and improving clinical outcomes.

Dr Felice Rivellese, Clinical Senior Lecturer and  Principal Investigator for MDR-RA at Queen Mary University of London said: “Queen Mary is taking a leading role in the fight against Multi-drug-Resistant Rheumatoid Arthritis as a key partner in the major new MDR-RA project. As the second-largest beneficiary of this substantial grant, we are eager to contribute by coordinating the work of experts across the consortium to apply cutting-edge techniques to analyse synovial biopsies and blood samples, providing the data needed to develop more effective, personalised treatments for Multi-Drug Resistant Rheumatoid Arthritis

“Queen Mary  brings to the MDR-RA project extensive experience in synovial biopsy analysis and a deep understanding of precision medicine approaches. To this end, Queen Mary  has assembled a team of leading experts who will play a pivotal role in this effort, including Professor Myles Lewis (Professor of Precision Medicine & Rheumatology), Professor Greg Slabaugh (Professor of Computer Vision and AI, Director of the Digital Environment Research Institute -DERI), and Professor Shafaq Sikandar (Professor of Sensory Neurophysiology). By leveraging this expertise and collaborating closely with other partner institutions, Queen Mary  will generate critical data that will ultimately revolutionize the way we understand and treat this debilitating condition and offer hope for a brighter future for patients who have exhausted existing treatment options”.

 

 

 

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