Hundreds of millions of people suffer from chronic back pain, often stemming from Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD). MRI imaging can visualize the structural decay of spinal discs, but what if DDD pathogenesis starts long before gross morphological degeneration is identified?

For years, researchers have hypothesized that the real issues begin on the molecular level when the collagen in our discs begins to degrade. But without the proper tools to directly visualize (let alone measure) this damage, researchers have been left with a critical gap in their understanding of DDD. Studying molecular collagen damage has been a massive challenge. While standard histology techniques can show tissue disorganization and anti-collagen antibodies can highlight collagen content, neither method can specifically differentiate healthy tissue from damage. Our Collagen Hybridizing Peptides (CHPs) can close this gap.

A study published in the Journal of Orthopedic Research utilized CHPs on human spinal disc tissue collected from patients undergoing surgery for severe DDD. Unlike traditional methods, CHPs are engineered to selectively bind to damaged collagen molecules to provide direct, quantifiable readouts of pathophysiological tissue damage, remodeling, and repair. CHPs’ unique features allowed researchers to get the clear, quantitative evidence they were looking for.