IM Médico, the digital media of reference among professionals and specialists in the area of health, has published an article on TriAnkle, in which the project is presented as a solution to the orthopaedic clinic with which to improve the quality of life of patients with tendinopathy.
The regenerative therapy developed by TriAnkle is an alternative to conventional surgery that manufactures customised implants of collagen and gelatin with 3D biompression, based on nanoencapsulated cells and/or regenerative factors, to be implanted in the injury.
Advantages of regenerative therapy
Currently, healthcare costs related to osteoarthritis (OA) in the European Union (EU) are 76.5 billion euros per year and for tendinopathies exceed 140 billion euros per year worldwide. If successful, the TriAnkle project would provide savings in functional and temporary recovery costs of around €12.24 billion per year for EU healthcare systems. In addition, the project would reduce costs related to tendinopathy therapies by 20%, resulting in savings of 28 billion euros for health systems worldwide.
In addition to these financial savings, patient recovery times could be reduced by up to 50%.
The TriAnkle project aims to increase the functionality of injured tissue by up to 10-15%, an important advantage in the case of elite athletes who could make a full recovery. “We are considering 3D printing combined with growth factors that promote regeneration, including stem cells of adipose origin,” explains Dr Lluis Quintana, Corporate Director of Viscofan BioEngineering and coordinator of the project. The cell therapy to which Quintana refers was developed in a previous cardiac repair Project, Cardiomesh, led by Viscofan.
Challenges
The development of these therapies brings up many challenges, including the search for suitable materials and dealing with regulatory issues to adapt them to current legislation, which is key for the practice of these therapies in the clinic.
“The idea now is to conduct a double-blind clinical trial to validate the study, which would require between 100 and 200 patients. We want to start as soon as possible, to go directly to patients, which is what interests us,” explains Josep Vergés Milano, President and CEO of OAFI, Foundation belonging to the TriAnkle project consortium.
