Blood test for osteoarthritis on the cards thanks to new discovery

The first blood test for osteoarthritis could soon be available following the discovery of a biomarker linked to both rheumatoid and osteoarthritis. The findings could lead to people being tested for osteoarthritis and diagnosed several years before the onset of physical symptoms.
Citrullinated proteins (CPs) are the focus of the research. We already know that people with rheumatoid arthritis have antibodies to CPs, but it was not thought that this was the same for those with osteoarthritis.
Now a team from the University of Warwick has found that there are increased CPs levels in both early-stage osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. And they have found that with a single test they could potentially detect and discriminate between the major types of arthritis at the early stages, before joint damage has occurred.
“This is a remarkable and unexpected finding,” comments lead researcher, Dr Naila Rabbani. “It could help bring early-stage and appropriate treatment for arthritis which gives the best chance of effective treatment”.
“Detection of early stage-osteoarthritis made the study very promising and we would have been satisfied with this only – but beyond this we also found we could detect and discriminate early-stage rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory joint diseases at the same.
“This discovery raises the potential of a blood test that can help diagnose both rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis several years before the onset of physical symptoms”.

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Image credit: Minh Hoang