Diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diseases of the joint

1. A method of administering a biologically active moiety to a subject in need of treatment of a disease of the joint, the method comprising:

administering a polymeric prodrug via intra-articular injection;

wherein the polymeric prodrug comprises, as a polymeric carrier, a water-insoluble hydrogel to which at least one biologically active moiety is covalently conjugated through a reversible prodrug linker moiety;

wherein, upon cleavage of said reversible prodrug linker moiety, the biologically active moiety is released as the corresponding drug in its free form;

wherein the at least one biologically active moiety is selected from the group consisting of (i) non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), (ii) disease modifying anti rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), (iii) corticosteroids, and (iv) antibodies and fragments thereof, fusion proteins, binding proteins, peptides and recombinant proteins;

wherein the reversible prodrug linker moiety is of formula (VII):

wherein the dashed line indicates the attachment to a primary or secondary amino group of an amine-containing biologically active moiety D by forming an amide bond; and

wherein X, X 1 , X 2 , X 3 , R 1 , R 1a , R 2 , R 2a , R 3 , and R 3a of formula (VII) have the following meaning:

X is C(R 4 R 4a ), N(R 4 ), O, C(R 4 R 4a )—C(R 5 R 5a ), C(R 5 R 5a )—C(R 4 R 4a ), C(R 4 R 4a )—N(R 6 ), N(R 6 )—C(R 4 R 4a ), C(R 4 R 4a )—O, or O—C(R 4 R 4a );

X 1 is C or S(O);

X 2 is C(R 7 R 7a ) or C(R 7 R 7a )—C(R 8 R 8a );

X 3 is O, S, or N—CN;

R 1 , R 1a , R 2 , R 2a , R 3 , R 3a , R 4 , R 4a , R 5 , R 5a , R 6 , R 7 , R 7a , R 8 , and R 8a are independently selected from the group consisting of H and C 1-4 alkyl; or

optionally, one or more of the pairs R 1a /R 4a , R 1a /R 5a , R 4a /R 5a , and R 7a /R 8a form a chemical bond;

optionally, one or more of the pairs R 1 /R 1a , R 2 /R 2a , R 4 /R 4a , R 5 /R 5a , R 7 /R 7a , and R 8 /R 8a are joined together with the atom to which they are attached to form a C 3-7 cycloalkyl; or 4-membered to 7-membered heterocyclyl;

optionally, one or more of the pairs R 1 /R 4 , R 1 /R 5 , R 1 /R 6 , R 4 /R 5 , R 7 /R 8 , and R 2 /R 3 are joined together with the atoms to which they are attached to form a ring A;

optionally, R 3 /R 3a are joined together with the nitrogen atom to which they are attached to form a 4-membered to 7-membered heterocycle;

A is selected from the group consisting of phenyl, naphthyl, indenyl, indanyl, tetralinyl, C 3-10 cycloalkyl, 4-membered to 7-membered heterocyclyl, and 9-membered to 11-membered heterobicyclyl;

wherein the reversible prodrug linker moiety of formula (VII) is connected to one group L 2 -Z and optionally more groups L 2 -Z, provided that the hydrogen marked with the asterisk in formula (VII) is not replaced by L 2 -Z; and

wherein:

L 2 is a single chemical bond or a spacer; and

Z is the water-insoluble hydrogel.

2. The method of claim 1 ;

wherein when the reversible prodrug linker moiety of formula (VII) is connected to L 2 -Z at R 3 or R 3a , R 3 and R 3a independently are H or are connected to N through an SP 3 -hybridized carbon atom.

3. The method of claim 1 ;

wherein the polymeric carrier comprises a PEG-based hydrogel.

4. The method of claim 1 ;

wherein the water-insoluble hydrogel is a hyaluronic acid-based hydrogel.

5. The method of claim 1 ;

wherein the water-insoluble hydrogel is polymerized through radical polymerization, ionic polymerization, or ligation reaction.

6. The method of claim 1 ;

wherein the at least one biologically active moiety comprises IL-1ra.

7. The method of claim 1 ;

wherein the at least one biologically active moiety is selected from the group consisting of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), fenamic acid derivatives, biphenylcarboxylic acid derivatives, oxicams, methotrexate, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitors, anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) agents, anti-IL-1 agents, anti-IL-6 agents, anti-IL-12 agents, anti-IL-15 agents, anti-IL-18 agents, anti-IL-21 agents, anti-IL-23 agents, fasinumab, tanezumab, anti-nerve growth factor (NGF) antibodies and antibody derivatives, anti-nerve growth factor receptor (NGFR) antibodies and antibody derivatives, TrkA antagonists, glucocorticoids, leflunomide, D-penicillamine, sulfasalazine, chloroquine derivatives, anti-CD20 antibodies, RANKL inhibitors, growth hormone, bone morphogenetic proteins, fibroblast growth factors, transforming growth factor-β, insulin-like growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor, growth/differentiation factor 5, NELL peptides, LIM mineralization proteins, matrix metalloproteinases, aggrecanases, cysteine-dependent cathepsins, and cell adhesion molecules (CAMs).

8. The method of claim 1 ;

wherein the polymeric prodrug is in the form of microparticles.

9. The method of claim 1 ;

wherein the polymeric prodrug is comprised in a pharmaceutical composition, the pharmaceutical composition further comprising one or more pharmaceutically acceptable excipients.

10. The method of claim 9 ;

wherein the pharmaceutical composition additionally comprises at least one other biologically active moiety, either in its free form or as a prodrug.

11. The method of claim 1 ;

wherein the disease of the joint is selected from the group consisting of infectious arthropathies (M00 to M03) (codes of International Classification of Disease).

12. The method of claim 1 ;

wherein the disease of the joint is selected from the group consisting of osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, Achilles tendinitis, acromegalic arthropathy, ankylosing spondylitis, bursitis, crystal deposition disease, chronic synovitis, chronic recurrent multifocal osteomyelitis, degenerative joint disease, diabetic finger sclerosis, discitis, discoid lupus erythematosus, drug-induced lupus, epicondylitis, Farber's lipogranulomatosis, Felty's syndrome, foreign body synovitis, Freiberg's disease, fungal arthritis, gonococcal arthritis, Goodpasture's syndrome, gout, granulomatous arteritis, hemarthrosis, hemochromatosis, Henoch-Schonlein purpura, hip dysplasia, hypertrophic osteoarthropathy, impingement syndrome, Jaccoud's arthropathy, juvenile ankylosing spondylitis, Lyme disease, malignant synovioma, medial plica syndrome, metastatic carcinomatous arthritis, multiple epiphyseal dysplasia, olecranon bursitis, Osgood-Schlatter's disease, osteomyelitis, palindromic rheumatism, patellofemoral pain syndrome, pigmented villonodular synovitis, popliteal cysts, posterior tibial tendonitis, Pott's disease, prepatellar bursitis, prosthetic joint infection, psoriatic arthritis, reactive arthritis/Reiter's syndrome, retrocalcaneal bursitis, rheumatoid vasculitis, rotator cuff tendonitis, Salmonella osteomyelitis, saturnine gout, septic arthritis, sickle cell arthropathy, spinal stenosis, tennis elbow, Tietse's syndrome, and trochanteric bursitis.

13. The method of claim 1 ;

wherein the disease of the joint is arthritis.

14. The method of claim 1 ;

wherein the disease of the joint is selected from osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

15. The method of claim 1 ;

wherein the disease of the joint is selected from the group consisting of erosive inflammatory osteoarthritis, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, seronegative arthritis, Shigella arthritis, Staphylococcus arthritis, syphilitic arthritis, traumatic arthritis, tuberculosis arthritis, arthritis of ulcerative colitis, viral arthritis, and Yersinia arthritis.