According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Osteoarthritis was ranked among the top 10 most expensive medical conditions to treat. In 2005 alone it cost $34 billion, with joint replacement surgery absorbing most of the cost.

"Drug development for OA has been challenging, in part due to the difficulty of enrolling patients who are likely to exhibit disease progression during the study. There appears to be strong potential to use the IL-1Ra genetic patterns to select for clinical trials patients who are more likely to benefit from an effective drug," said Dr. Kenneth Kornman, Chief Scientific Officer, Interleukin Genetics. "A genetic test also would have strong clinical utility for physicians to better manage patients who will more likely progress to a severe form of the disease and require surgery."

The 1,154 subjects in the Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project, directed by Dr. Jordan were monitored for a period between 4 and 11 years to study initiation or progression of osteoarthritis. Subjects were analyzed for genetic markers that predicted those subjects who remained stable and those subjects who progressed to severe osteoarthritis, as measured radiographically. Nine genes were found to be associated with osteoarthritis progression, with the strongest prediction of progression from combinations of gene variations in the gene for IL-1Ra.

SOURCE Interleukin Genetics, Inc.