Are pro-regenerative therapies the future of osteoarthritis disease modification?

Osteoarthritis (OA) has historically been regarded as a disease of imbalance between synthetic, anabolic responses in the joint tissues and catabolic, degradative ones. Since adult articular cartilage has always been thought to have poor reparative capability, most research over the past two decades has focused on targeting inflammatory and degradative pathways in OA to halt progression. Despite gaining important mechanistic insights from human and preclinical molecular analyses, none of the randomized controlled trials targeting inflammatory cytokines or disease-relevant proteases has met its primary endpoints,1 leaving many to question whether disease-modifying OA drugs (DMOADs) are a realistic aspiration.
Source: Osteoarthritis and Cartilage - Category: Rheumatology Authors: Tags: Commentary Source Type: research