With investors backing them and products close to market, it’s easy to believe that it’s been a straightforward journey for SLU researchers Eva Skiöldebrand and Stina Ekman in their efforts to combat osteoarthritis in horses. That the journey has taken over 20 years, involved more setbacks than successes and required courage, curiosity and a strong belief in themselves may not seem as obvious today, now that they’re beginning to approach the finish line.
A horse that gets osteoarthritis becomes lame and is often given treatment in its joints. In long-term cases, when treatments do not provide the necessary pain relief, the animal must be put down in the worst case scenario. Osteoarthritis is a disease that affects both animals and humans, but horses develop the disease early in life if they are trained and put into competition at a young age.
“The disease is very common in horses and causes them pain and chronic lameness. The driving force for us has been to find diagnostic markers that identify early signs of disease, something which could change these horses’ lives.”
So say Stina Ekman and Eva Skiöldebrand, whose paths crossed about 30 years ago when a mutual veterinary colleague thought they should meet. Stina Ekman was then Professor of Special Pathology at SLU and the meeting led to Eva becoming a PhD student under Stina’s supervision and ever since then they have worked together. Eva Skiöldebrand is now Professor of General Pathology at SLU.
During their journey, two human medicine researchers joined their team and together they have solved the puzzle that eventually led to good results with both early diagnostics and drug treatment.
“We found our team. All of us have a background in research dating back many years, and together we found synergies and research findings that could be linked together. Through a translational perspective, we were able to solve difficult questions together,” says Eva.
In cases of joint inflammation, parts of the cartilage and bone proteins are released as small fragments.
“Substances that leak from the joint into the blood, so-called biomarkers, can now be measured and monitored in horses in their blood, synovial fluid or saliva. The degradation starts before the horse presents with clinical symptoms and this means we can make the diagnosis very early on.”
In order for this knowledge to be put to use, development is now being pursued at two companies: SGPTH Life Science, with a patent for the biomarkers, and Artroa AB, which has a patent for a drug that can stop the development of osteoarthritis.
“When osteoarthritis is identified in a horse through the biomarkers, treatment can be initiated in time and thus slow down the disease even before it causes symptoms.”
One of the major breakthroughs was when they saw that the biomarkers are identical in all animal species, which means that osteoarthritis could be detected early and slowed down in other animals, such as cattle, cats and dogs. In the long term, it will also be possible for early osteoarthritis to be diagnosed in humans.
“That is a long way in the future, but we’ve seen good results with horses, and humans are genomically identical to horses.”
Eva and Stina’s journey is now a story with a happy ending, with SLU Holding, Uppsala University Invest, Länsförsäkringar och Kjell och Märta Beijer as investors.
“We’re always having discussions with SLU Holding who is helping us with budgeting and marketing planning. Their skills and networks have been invaluable to the companies.”
But they make no bones about the fact that it has been a struggle.
“Things are looking promising for us right now, but it hasn’t always been like that. Us not giving up has now paid dividends in the shape of important results for the welfare of horses. I never think that something is impossible, rather ‘that’s the only place we’re going.’ We’re both extremely stubborn. I think not being dragged down when things go badly is an important quality for success,” explains Eva.
Learn more about Stina Ekman’s research.
Learn more about Eva Skiöldenberg´s research.
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