A Conservative View on Osteoarthritis, Failing to Mention Senescent Cells

This open access paper provides a conservative view on the state of research and development of osteoarthritis treatments. Some time is spent on the puzzling nature of inflammation in osteoarthritis, and the failure of immunosuppressive therapies used for other conditions to produce meaningful benefits in this case. Yet senescent cells - and their inflammatory signaling, shown in a number of animal studies to contribute to and even directly cause osteoarthritis - are not mentioned at all. This gives some idea of the mindset in evidence here: lines of research arising in the past five to ten years, and that have not yet progressed to later stage clinical trials, are not worthy of note. The clinical community progresses slowly indeed. Despite an increasing burden of osteoarthritis in developed societies, target discovery has been slow and there are currently no approved disease-modifying osteoarthritis drugs. This lack of progress is due in part to a series of misconceptions over the years: that osteoarthritis is an inevitable consequence of ageing, that damaged articular cartilage cannot heal itself, and that osteoarthritis is driven by synovial inflammation similar to that seen in rheumatoid arthritis. Recent randomised controlled trials, using treatments repurposed from rheumatoid arthritis, have largely been unsuccessful. Genome-wide studies point to defects in repair pathways, which accords well with recent promise using growth factor therapies or Wnt pathway anta...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs