Medical Faculty, University in Maribor logo
   
  

 


Title:

Molecular genetic biomarkers and predictive models for diagnosis, monitoring and personalized treatment of chronic immune diseases

Financing:

   Republic of Slovenia, Ministry of Education, Science and Sport logo      European Union, Regional fund for development

The investment (specific operation) is co-financed by the Republic of Slovenia (MIZŠ) and the European Union from European fund for regional development.

Program:

Operational program for the implementation of the European cohesion policy in the period 2014-2020

Public call:

Public call for promotion of researchers at the beginning of their career 2.1

Reference number:

MIZŠ: 5442-1/2018/53

Participating organizations:

Medical Faculty, University in Maribor logo EVG company logo        

Medicinska fakulteta, Univerza v Mariboru (MFUM) in EVG, molekularna diagnostika, d. o. o.

Project head:

dr. Mateja Zupin

Coordinator MFUM:

Tatjana Golob

Participating MFUM:

prof. dr. Uroš Potočnik

Duration:

1.4.2019 - 31.3.2022


A brief description:
Chronic inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which is divided into Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, asthma and osteoarthritis, significantly reduce the quality of life and reduce the efficiency of the affected patient at work or in school. Effective therapy in these patients is key to long-term improvement. Pro-inflammatory tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF) has a dominant influence on the pathogenesis of most chronic immune diseases, so biological drugs that can block TNF, i.e. etanercept (ETN), infliximab (IFX) and adalimumab (ADA) have brought great progress, especially in more severe forms of the disease.

The aim of the proposed research is to identify molecular genetic markers for the selection of biological drugs that would be useful in personalized medicine, to explain the molecular mechanisms that contribute to unresponsiveness to biological therapy in patients with CD and RA, and to help in the formulation of strategies for the personalized selection of biological therapy. In doing so, we will integrate genetic, expression, proteomic, epigenetic and regulatory data with bioinformatics tools that enable the identification and description of biological pathways important in the response to treatment with biological drugs.

Publications:
GORENJAK, Mario, ZUPIN, Mateja, JEZERNIK, Gregor, SKOK, Pavel, POTOČNIK, Uroš. Omics data integration identifies ELOVL7 and MMD gene regions as novel loci for adalimumab response in patients with Crohnʼs disease. Scientific reports. [v tisku][12 str.]. ISSN 2045-2322. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-84909-z