Osteoarthritis in year 2021: biochemical markers

Objective: To summarize recent scientific advances in protein-derived soluble biomarkers of osteoarthritis.

Design: A systematic search on the PubMed electronic database of clinical studies on protein-derived soluble biochemical markers of osteoarthritis in humans that were published between January 1st 2020 and March 31th 2021. The studies were selected on the basis of objective criteria and summarized in a table. Then they were described in a narrative review.

Results: Out of 1971 publications, 48 fulfilled all selection criteria and 16 were selected by the author for the narrative review. The papers were classified according their clinical significance as defined in the BIPEDS classification. Two papers investigated the "burden of disease", two were dedicated to "investigative biomarkers", four papers question the "prognosis", three the "efficacy of treatment" and five the "diagnosis and phenotyping" value of protein-derived biomarkers.

Conclusions: Currently, biomarkers research is focused on their use as tools to identify molecular endotypes and clinical phenotypes and to facilitate patient screening and monitoring in clinical trials. This approach should allow a more targeted management of patients suffering from osteoarthritis.