This Treatment Could Reverse Osteoarthritis Joint Damage With a Single Injection

You are almost certainly know them: Someone who had to retire from football because of a hip problem. A grandmother who can’t raise her arm to comb her hair because of shoulder pain. A colleague who had knee replacement surgery. Very often, the cause is osteoarthritis, joint wear and tear which affects one in six people over the age of 30. Osteoarthritis is incurable and the only remedies are the implantation of a prosthesis or treatment for pain.

There is reason for optimism, however, as an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has allocated millions of dollars to various initiatives aimed at finding a cure for the disease. That agency is the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), and the project that aims to eradicate osteoarthritis is called NITRO, or Novel Innovations for Tissue Regeneration in Osteoarthritis. The most advanced initiative in this area is being undertaken by a multidisciplinary team at the University of Colorado Boulder, which received a $33.5 million grant from NITRO to develop an experimental therapy with the potential to reverse joint damage within weeks with a simple injection.

Osteoarthritis is characterized by the progressive wear and tear of cartilage, the tissue that cushions contact between bones. Over time, this deterioration leads not only to pain and inflammation but also to joint deformities and loss of mobility. It is the most common type of arthritis in the United States and affects up to 240 million people worldwide.

“At the moment, the options for many patients are either massive, expensive surgery or nothing. There’s not much in between,” Evalina Burger, professor and chair of the department of orthopedics at CU Anschutz, said in a statement. “That’s why ARPA-H is so important.”

In this context, the Colorado team led by biomedical engineer Stephanie Bryant offers a radically different approach: “Our goal is not just to treat pain and stop progression, but to end this disease. »

Joints that can heal themselves

This advance is based on exploiting the body’s natural ability to regenerate. Instead of introducing artificial tissue or a prosthesis, Colorado scientists designed a system that “recruits” the body’s own cells to repair the damage.

One strategy involves a single injection that delivers an already approved drug in a controlled manner, using a particle system that acts as a vehicle. This system allows small doses to be administered over months directly into the affected joint, thus stimulating repair processes.

The second strategy is designed for more advanced cases. This is a kit of biomaterials and proteins that can be applied via minimally invasive procedures. Once inside the body, this material solidifies and acts as a scaffold, attracting progenitor cells that fill and regenerate damaged areas of cartilage or bone.

A very important common point between the two approaches is that they seek to transform the diseased joint into an environment conducive to natural regeneration.

Rapid and positive progress

In animal studies, the results have been encouraging. Treated joints returned to a healthy state within four to eight weeks. Additionally, in the case of more severe injuries, researchers observed complete regeneration of damaged tissues.

“In two years, we were able to go from a moonshot idea to developing these therapies and demonstrating that they reverse osteoarthritis in animals,” Bryant said. Additional experiments with human cells obtained from patients undergoing joint replacement also showed clear regenerative effects, suggesting that the approach could be translatable to humans.

However, it is important to emphasize that these results have not been validated by clinical trials. The researchers first intend to publish their results in an academic journal later this year. They also founded a startup, Renovare Therapeutics, to begin the commercialization process.

Back in the laboratory, the next step would be to expand animal studies and analyze key aspects such as toxicity and safety. If all goes as planned, human clinical trials could begin in about 18 months.

This story originally appeared in WIRED in Spanish and has been translated from Spanish.