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Osteoarthritis (OA) is a leading cause of disability in older adults worldwide. This study aimed to determine the associations between inflammatory markers, dietary intake and OA symptoms and pain. Understanding these associations has the potential to improve OA diagnostic and monitoring outcomes. Data from the ROAM (Researching Osteoarthritis and GreenShell Mussels) study collected from adults 55–80 years screened for OA signs and symptoms (n = 107, 65.7 years ± 6.34, 69% female) were assessed for associations between serum inflammatory markers (pg/mL), dietary inflammatory index (DII) scores and participants’ subjective measures of OA pain and symptoms. These included the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score questionnaire (KOOS) subscales: pain (P), symptoms other than pain (S), function in activities of daily living (ADL), function in sports/recreation (SP) and quality of life (QoL); Measure of Intermittent and Constant Osteoarthritis Pain (ICOAP); Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) of pain (VAS1) and symptoms (VAS2). The DII score was determined from a food frequency questionnaire and based on 34 components. The inflammatory marker IL-23 was negatively associated with all the KOOS subscales P: β coefficient −0.18, (95%CI −0.31, −0.04), S: −0.31 (−0.48, −0.14), ADL: −0.20 (−0.34, −0.05), SP: −0.43 (−0.72, −0.15) and QoL: −0.28 (−0.48, −0.08) and was positively associated with VAS measures, VAS1: 0.36 (0.17, 0.55) and VAS2: 0.25 (0.002, 0.50). MCP-1 was negatively associated and IL-12 was positively associated with KOOS P: −0.14, (−0.28, −0.01) and 0.23 (0.07, 0.40), respectively. IL-17 was positively associated with KOOS SP: 0.45, (0.14, 0.77), and IFN-α2 was positively associated with VAS1: 0.24 (0.003, 0.48). ICOAP was not associated with inflammatory markers. Inflammatory markers and subjective measures were not associated with DII. The levels of IL-23, MCP-1 and IFN-α2 increase as the symptoms worsen, while the levels of IL-12 and IL-17 increase as the symptoms improve. These markers may be useful as diagnostic and assessment tools, however, further research is needed to confirm their exact roles in OA.

Osteoporosis is a significant public health issue around the world, with post-menopausal osteoporosis due to estrogen deficiency resulting in approximately ¾ of cases. In this study, 18 aged Merino ewes were ovariectomized, and 10 were controls. Three of the ovariectomized ewes were treated weekly with 400 mg of methylprednisolone for 5 months and three were treated weekly for 2 months, followed by a 3-month recovery period. At 2 months, five control animals and six ovariectomized animals were euthanized. At 5 months, all the remaining ewes were euthanized. Kidney samples were collected postmortem for qPCR analysis of NPT1, PTH1R, NPT2a, NPT2c, Klotho, FGFR1IIIc, VDR, CYP24A1, CYP27B1, TRPV5, TRPV6, CalD9k, CalD28k, PMCA and NCX1. Ovariectomized sheep had significantly greater VDR expression compared with other groups. Ovariectomized sheep treated with glucocorticoids for 2 months followed by euthanasia at 5 months showed significant differences in TRPV5, CYP24A1 and klotho gene expression compared to other groups. Differences in klotho expression were most marked after adjustment for repeated measures (p = 0.1). Klotho is known as the “anti-aging” hormone and is involved in calcium and phosphorus metabolism. Klotho may be involved in the recovery of bone mineral density in ovariectomized sheep treated with glucocorticoids for 2 months followed by euthanasia at 5 months. Further research on the role of klotho is recommended.

Bone loss and osteoporosis is a serious health problem worldwide. The impact of osteoporosis is far greater than many other serious health problems, such as breast and prostate cancers. Statistically, one in three women and one in five men over 50 years of age will experience osteoporotic fractures in their life. In this paper, the design and development of a portable IoT-based sensing system for early detection of bone loss have been presented. The CTx-I biomarker was measured in serum samples as a marker of bone resorption. A planar interdigital sensor was used to evaluate the changes in impedance by any variation in the level of CTx-I. Artificial antibodies were used to introduce selectivity to the sensor for CTx-I molecule. Artificial antibodies for CTx-I molecules were created using molecular imprinted polymer (MIP) technique in order to increase the stability of the system and reduce the production cost and complexity of the assay procedure. Real serum samples collected from sheep blood were tested and the result validation was done by using an ELISA kit. The PoC device was able to detect CTx-I concentration as low as 0.09 ng/mL. It exhibited an excellent linear behavior in the range of 0.1–2.5 ng/mL, which covers the normal reference ranges required for bone loss detection. Future possibilities to develop a smart toilet for simultaneous measurement of different bone turnover biomarkers was also discussed.

The objective of this paper is to report a novel non-invasive, real-time, and label-free smart assay technique for the prognostic detection of bone loss by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The proposed system incorporated an antibody-antigen-based sensor functionalization to induce selectivity for the C-terminal telopeptide type one collagen (CTx-I) molecules—a bone loss biomarker. Streptavidin agarose was immobilized on the sensing area of a silicon substrate-based planar sensor, patterned with gold interdigital electrodes, to capture the antibody-antigen complex. Calibration experiments were conducted with various known CTx-I concentrations in a buffer solution to obtain a reference curve that was used to quantify the concentration of an analyte in the unknown serum samples. Multivariate chemometric analyses were done to determine the performance viability of the developed system. The analyses suggested that a frequency of 710 Hz is the most discriminating regarding the system sensitivity. A detection limit of 0.147 ng/mL was achieved for the proposed sensor and the corresponding reference curve was linear in the range of 0.147 ng/mL to 2.669 ng/mL. Two sheep blood samples were tested by the developed technique and the results were validated using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results from the proposed technique match those from the ELISA.