The TMSB4 Pseudogene LncRNA Functions as a Competing Endogenous RNA to Promote Cartilage Degradation in Human Osteoarthritis

Liu Q, Hu X, Zhang X, Dai L, Duan X, Zhou C, Ao Y · Molecular Therapy

The thymosin β4 pseudogene transcript lncRNA-MSR was upregulated in damaged human OA cartilage and activated by mechanical strain, and it raised TMSB4 expression by sponging miR-152; blocking it protected against degradation, so the authors propose the Tβ4 axis as a therapeutic target to inhibit, not to supply.

Population

Damaged and intact cartilage from 50 patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty; human chondrocytes under cyclic tensile strain

Intervention

None — expression profiling, plus lncRNA manipulation in chondrocytes

Comparator

Intact cartilage from the same joints

Limitations

Expression and cell-culture work; the therapeutic inference (inhibit the axis) has not been tested in a joint in vivo, and the authors note that the pseudogene transcript has no homologue in other species, so no animal model exists for it. National Natural Science Foundation of China funding, no competing interests.