Thomas M. Graber Award of Special Merit: Neural EGFL Like 1 as an Anti-inflammatory Disease-modifying Anti-arthritic Drug

Arthritis appears in over 100 identified diseases and can damage any joint in the body, which turns into dreadful public health and economic burdens. An ideal curative medication for arthritis should effectively and safely reduce inflammation and promote cartilage regeneration at the same time. Unfortunately, all the currently available cures do not meet this criterion. Here, we try to determine the involvement of NELL-1, a pro-chondrogenic molecule associated with arthritis suggested by GWAS studies and explore its potential benefits in arthritis treatment as an anti-inflammatory disease-modifying anti-arthritic drug.

Learning Objectives:

• Demonstrate the role of NELL-1 during the progression of OA by a genetic mutant mice model.
• Define the anti-inflammatory role of NELL-1 in an acute arthritis mice model.
• Distinguish the mechanism of action of NELL-1’s anti-inflammatory effects in articular cartilage/chondrocytes.