Synergy and translation of allogenic bone marrow stem cells after photodynamic treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with tetra sulfonatophenyl porphyrin and TiO2 nanowhiskers

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) etiology and amelioration remains a challenge in modern therapeutics. Herein, we explored the synergistic effect of allogenic bone marrow stem cell (BMSC) translation and photodynamic treatment of RA with tetra sulfonatophenyl porphyrin (TSPP) and TiO2 nanocomposites as a new strategy for RA theranostics. The translation of BMSCs with miRNAs into infected joints in long bones post-photodynamic therapy is helpful for treating and understanding RA pathophysiology. We observed that allogenic BMSC translation combined with TSPP-TiO2 nanocomposites can significantly (p < 0.01) lower the concentrations of serum biomarkers (tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-17) in a collagen induced arthritis (CIA) murine model, both in vitro and in vivo, as well as improve other parameters such as arthritis score, BMSC count, complete blood count, and numbers of platelets, red blood cells, and white blood cells. Moreover, a fluorescent TSPP in the feet or long bones and X-ray bioimaging of RA joints revealed the clinical efficacy of BMSCs combined with TSPP-TiO2 nanocomposites. Microarray data analysis illustrated that rno-mir-375-3p and rno-mir-196b-3p were up-regulated by approximately 100-fold in the BMSCs of ameliorated RA post-photodynamic therapy with TSPP-TiO2 nanocomposites. Our study not only suggests a new approach for RA theranostics, but also helps in understanding RA pathophysiology.