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Gums&Joints
Protein citrullination as a link between periodontal diseases and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and target for development of novel drugs to treat RA
Funded under the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union.
FP-HEALTH-2010-B
Duration: November 2010 - October 2015
COLLABORATIVE PROJECT
The Gums&Joints consortium consists of eleven partners representing 8 EU countries:
6 universities: University of Goteborg (UGOT) Sweden, Jagiellonian University (UJ) Poland, University of Aarhus (UARH) Denmark, University of Birmingham, University of Glasgow (U.Glasgow) UK and Universita degli Studi di Firenze (UNIFI) Italy.- 3 research centres two of them from a strong clinical and research environment: Karolinska Institute (KI) Sweden, Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology (ICSTM) UK, C.S.I.C IBMB Barcelona (CSIC) Spain.
- 2 SMEs: 4SC AG (4SC) Germany and Anaxomics Biotech (AX) Spain.
All are significant players in their respective fields of competence as apparent by their world-wide recognition and numbers of high impacted publications.
PROJECT SUMMARY
To examine the role of P. gingivalis in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis and periodontitis.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:
- A multidisciplinary examination (genetics, epidemiology, molecular immunology and animal models) of susceptibility factors and immune responses in rheumatoid arthritis and periodontitis to identify etiologic pathways in both diseases.
- Detailed analysis of the structure and function of P. gingivalis PAD (peptidylarginine deiminases) and design of specific inhibitors as novel treatments.
- Taken together, in addition to the translational aspect (finding a lead compound(s) for development of a drug to treat/prevent periodontitis and periodontitis-associated systemic diseases), this project also has a strong scientific, exploratory character related to investigation of PPAD (P. gingivalis peptidylarginine deiminase) as a novel virulence factor of P. gingivalis and the development of an animal model linking periodontitis with rheumatoid arthritis.
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