How effective will be the new drug in osteoarthritis?

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Osteoarthritis (OA) is the common degenerative condition of joints which causes breakdown and eventual loss of the cartilage creating stiffness, pain, and impaired movement of joints. It is a globally affecting disease which is the leading cause of joint pain and stiffness in older people. Many researches are going on to find out better treatment for this chronic condition.

A clinical trial is in process on a promising drug for the treatment of osteoarthritis, which has been developed by the collaboration of The Liverpool University and AKL Research and Development Ltd.

AKL discovered promising phytochemicals, found in natural products, which can be synthesized. Two molecules have been discovered which work synergistically in combination and together create ‘APPA’, a patented drug. It could have a huge impact on OA symptoms.

APPA has gone through various pre-clinical animal testing and successfully passed different toxicology studies. It has clearly expressed improved functionality and the slowing of cartilage destruction, providing remarkable relief from pain in OA. Now its studies can be started on human subjects, which will commence at the Liverpool Clinical Trials Unit (LCTU), led by rheumatologist Professor Robert Moots from the University's Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease.

As said by Professor Moots the often used prescription drugs to manage severe pain in OA, generally are not effective and even in many cases, leads to unacceptable side effects. In many cases, major joint replacement surgery is required to combat the pain, which in some way is wrong. About this drug he said that it has huge potential to provide an effective treatment for OA. It’s a reliable and easy way to treat OA. Surely it will help to save large amounts of money for the NHS and greatly improve the lifestyle and health of patients. So are excited to move this programme of trials forward.

Professor Steven Edwards at the University's Institute of Integrative Biology is researching how APPA affects human cells, especially activated neutrophils.

He explained: "Neutrophils are the most abundant type of white blood cells and form an essential part of our immune system. There is now considerable evidence to show that neutrophils are activated in inflammatory diseases. They are however a 'two-edged sword': they are required to protect us from infections but their inappropriate activation can result in irreversible damage in inflammatory diseases.

"The 'holy grail' of anti-inflammatory targeting of neutrophils is specifically to block their tissue-damaging activities, but not compromise their ability to protect us. Work is ongoing but to date it appears that APPA does not target the host defence properties of neutrophils but does block their pro-inflammatory activities."

There remains a high unmet need for an effective, well tolerated OA drug, so understandably and there is much excitement about APPA’s prospects.

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