SEMINAR: Bayliss Seminar Series

With life expectancy on the rise, osteoporosis, the most common form of skeletal disease, is likely to pose a significant burden on both patients and healthcare infrastructure for the foreseeable future. Imbalances at the unique immunological niche of the bone marrow in osteoporosis, and diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, leads to an increase in bone resorption by osteoclasts and increased bone fragility. Human osteoclast-associated receptor (OSCAR), an immunoglobulin (Ig)-like collagen receptor that is up-regulated on osteoclasts during osteoclastogenesis, may represent a promising therapeutic target for the control of bone resorption. As a member of the leukocyte receptor complex family of proteins, OSCAR shares a high degree of sequence and structural homology with other collagen receptors of this family, including glycoprotein VI, leukocyte-associated Ig-like receptor-1, and leukocyte Ig-like receptor B4, yet recognizes a unique collagen sequence; a feature which may aid in the design of specific therapeutics. In this talk I will present work carried out during my PhD into the characterisation of OSCAR binding to collagen using a triple-helical collagen-like peptide (CLP). Furthermore, I will discuss an investigation into the use of peptide matrikines as inhibitors of osteoclastogenesis in vitro.