Identifying treatment targets for femoroacetabular impingement and OA
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FAIS) and hip osteoarthritis (OA): Identifying New Treatment Targets
IRAS ID
344372
Contact name
Vikas Khanduja
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cambridge University NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Cambridge
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Femoroacetabular impingement syndrome (FAIS) affects the hip joint in younger patients. The hip is a ball-and-socket joint, and FAIS affects normal pain-free motion due to cam and pincer lesions. The early stages of FAIS, clinical representation, and causes are poorly defined, with poor representation of ethnic minorities.
FAIS has a massive burden on the society and individuals with disabling pain. In later stages of the disease, it can present as hip osteoarthritis (OA), leading to increased stiffness, pain, reduced mobility, and ultimately, surgery such as total hip replacement (THR). The progression of FAIS to arthritis is crucial to patients to provide personalised treatment. Patient recruitment strategies and scientific methods are illustrated in the accompanying diagrams. This will help us understand and identify patients with FAIS at risk of progression and treatment options to regress or halt progression to OA. Our study is aligned with the early hip and knee osteoarthritis Top 10 priorities with James Lind Alliance (JLA) Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) number 1 priority within the category of ‘unrelated to surgical or non-surgical uncertainties’ have proposed: ‘Can early OA be slowed down, reversed, or cured?
There is a poor understanding of the pathology at a cellular level, which continues to drive a lack of early intervention treatments before OA is established. To progress in this field, identification of gene expression at the transcriptomic level is required alongside developing models for the assessment of potential treatments.
Therefore, our aim with this study is to use next-generation sequencing of human tissues to identify potential cellular drivers of the progression of FAIS to OA and to use this information to identify potential new treatment targets.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/EE/0213
Date of REC Opinion
1 Nov 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion