# Quantitative Assessment of Early Metabolic and Biochemical Changes in Osteoarthritis

> **NIH NIH R00** · STANFORD UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $237,827

## Abstract

Project Summary
Osteoarthritis (OA) is the leading cause of disability worldwide, yet its treatment options remain limited, in part
due to the lack of non-invasive techniques to quantify disease progression and response to therapies. We
propose to develop simultaneous positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
(PET/MR) using 18F-sodium fluoride (18F-NaF) to assess subchondral bone remodeling as a marker of early
OA progression and relate bone metabolism to biochemical changes in articular cartilage. This approach will
provide a considerable advance for imaging of OA; including new markers of early disease and insights into
the spatial and temporal progression of OA.
This project aims to develop a new approach to knee imaging using PET/MR, providing fast, quantitative and
registered metabolic and biochemical markers sensitive to the earliest changes in OA. Our specific aims are
(1) to develop parallel MR imaging techniques for fast and simultaneous bilateral knee MRI; (2) to create an
automated attenuation correction method for flexible MRI knee coils to achieve accurate and reproducible
dynamic scans of 18F-NaF PET uptake; and (3) to study the spatiotemporal relationships between bone
remodeling and adjacent cartilage changes and evaluate if 18F-NaF PET can predict degenerative knee
changes in subjects at risk of developing OA following anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears.
The innovation of this work lies in the development of a novel imaging technique for studying OA, PET/MR,
that offers quantitative and multimodal information sensitive to the earliest metabolic and biochemical changes
in bone and cartilage. Advanced methods developed in this work will enhance fast, quantitative assessment of
early disease biomarkers within each imaging modality. The significance of this work is that we will be able to
sensitively and quantitatively track the earliest changes of OA, and study the spatiotemporal progression of
disease. These contributions will provide new insights into OA pathogenesis, leading to new treatment targets,
and ultimately therapies to arrest the onset and progression of OA.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10147706
- **Project number:** 5R00EB022634-05
- **Recipient organization:** STANFORD UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Feliks Kogan
- **Activity code:** R00 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $237,827
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-08-01 → 2023-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10147706

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10147706, Quantitative Assessment of Early Metabolic and Biochemical Changes in Osteoarthritis (5R00EB022634-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10147706. Licensed CC0.

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