Centre of Experimental Medicine SAS
Topic
Extra-articular complications of arthritis and evaluation of their therapeutic interventions with natural substances.
PhD. program
Animal physiology
Name of the supervisor
PharmDr. Katarína Bauerová, PhD., DrSc.
Contact:
Receiving school
Faculty of Natural Sciences Comenius University
Annotation
The goal will be to achieve remission of experimental arthritis with the help of natural substances such as terpenoids and flavonoids. Arthritis will be induced in Lewis rats using complete Freund's adjuvant. The work will focus not only on articular manifestations of the disease, but especially on medically significant extra-articular manifestations. The subject of research will be: cardiovascular complications, disorders of lipid metabolism, arthritic cachexia, sarcopenia and bone erosion. In addition to biometric indicators, markers of inflammation and oxidative stress will be determined in plasma and in relevant tissues (heart, liver, muscles and spleen). The apoptotic, redox and cardioprotective mechanisms in the myocardium will be analyzed using Western blot. The myocardium will also be subjected to a study of mitochondrial energetics. The signal pathways influencing the growth of muscle mass will be monitored in different types muscles. The work will also focus on the study of bone erosion mediated by the RANKL/RANK/osteoprotegerin pathway. Finally, the effectiveness of the most effective natural substance in combination with methotrexate and upadacitinib will be verified.