“Bad Knees” is not an unfamiliar topic among older folks. Most of the complaints are pains and swellings, accompanying clicking and locking at the joints. Some people believe it’s a sign of ageing when one starts feeling funny at the knees. And it may just be true! Although the disease has been long recognized, the exact cause remains unknown. A team led by Professor Shang-Cheng Hung, Professor Chi-Huey Wong and Dr. Rachel Cheng dug into this problem around seven years ago.

Now, a report of how a trisaccharide structure was proved to be the ultimate substrate to en-do-O-sulfatase-1(Sulf-1) has been published. They have not only unraveled the key to a known mystery but also proposed a structure as a potential inhibitor to solve the problem. The detail was published in Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS).

The original article can be read online at the JACS website: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.0c00005