Protein Removal and Purification of Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP2)

Musculoskeletal injuries and diseases are the main cause of disability in the U.S. Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) is defined as an autologous blood product and a promising candidate to help in the treatment of such injuries and disorders. While in vitro studies with PRP have shown promising results, there is lack of strong translational and clinical evidence regarding. Several factors impact if potential with one of them being the content in inflammatory cytokines. The key deliverable of this proposal is to develop a safer and more effective alternative to current PRP with superior efficacy

Year 1 Progress Report:

Musculoskeletal injuries and diseases are the main cause of disability in the US. In 2014, there were 26,232 procedures performed in Minnesota to treat osteoarthritis, accounting for a total cost of $435.8 million. Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) is as an autologous blood product with an increased platelet concentration produced by centrifugation of a patient’s own blood.  PRP is commonly used in an attempt to treat various medical conditions, including osteoarthritis, due the elevated presence of hundreds of bioactive molecules such as growth factors in the PRP solution that regulate several fundamental cellular processes contributing to healing. The market for PRP in 2016 was $214.3 million and is projected to be more than $647.1 million by 2025; however, continued research is required to optimize its preparation and use in order to achieve the best healing and regenerative outcome.

Despite the fact that PRP is often used in clinical practice, there is a lack of high-quality evidence supporting its efficacy in healing damaged or diseased tissue. One contributing factor may be the variations in PRP preparation, application methods, and patient profile (age, type of injury); but more importantly, by the complex composition of PRP products. Besides the presence of healing proteins (anabolic proteins), the solution also consists of inflammatory/catabolic proteins such as tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFa), interleukin 1Beta (IL1beta), interleukin 6 and interleukin 8. These components may disturb the beneficial effects of healing proteins and consequently reduce PRP’s regenerative potential.

In this study, we aim to purify PRP formulations by eliminating the inflammatory/catabolic proteins using functionalized microspheres. By doing this, we hope to generate a superior PRP product, containing solely proteins and molecules contributing to healing, with greater efficacy and regenerative potential.

So far, we have been able create a capture strategy for the two most important anabolic factors: TNFa and IL1beta. These two peptides are known to play a crucial role in inflammation and, more specifically, in osteoarthritis. We were able to capture 80% of all TNFa peptides present in a saline solution. We are expecting a similar capture capacity for IL1beta; however, these samples are still under investigation. With these promising results, we are very excited to move forward in this project and create a purified PRP product that hopefully will be more effective than traditional PRP.