This treatment can reverse joint damage caused by osteoarthritis with a single injection

You almost certainly are Get to know them: Someone who had to retire from football due to a hip problem. A grandmother cannot raise her arm to comb her hair due to shoulder pain. A coworker had a knee replacement. Often, the cause is osteoarthritis, a wear and tear on the joints that affects one in six people over the age of 30. Osteoporosis has no cure, and the only treatment is the implantation of a prosthetic limb or some treatment for pain.

But there is reason for optimism, because an agency of the US Department of Health and Human Services has allocated millions of dollars to various initiatives looking into a cure for this disease. This agency is the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), and the project that seeks to eliminate osteoporosis is called NITRO, or New Innovations for Tissue Regeneration in Osteoarthritis. The most advanced initiative in this field is being led by a multidisciplinary team at the University of Colorado Boulder, which received a $33.5 million grant from NITRO to develop an experimental treatment that has the potential to reverse joint damage within weeks with a simple injection.

Osteoarthritis is characterized by the gradual wear and tear of cartilage, the tissue that protects the connection between bones. Over time, this deterioration causes not only pain and inflammation, but also joint deformity and loss of mobility. It is the most common type of arthritis in the United States and affects Up to 240 million people worldwide.

“Currently, the options for many patients are either a massive and expensive surgery or nothing,” said Evalina Berger, professor and head of the department of orthopedic surgery at Anschutz University, via A. statement. “That’s why ARPA-H is so important.”

Against this backdrop, the Colorado team led by biomedical engineer Stephanie Bryant proposes 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 breakthrough is based on harnessing the body’s natural ability to renew itself. Instead of inserting artificial tissue or prosthetic limbs, Colorado scientists designed a system that “recruits” the body’s own cells to repair the damage.

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

The second strategy is designed for more advanced cases. It includes a range of biomaterials and proteins that can be applied through minimally invasive procedures. Once in the body, this substance hardens and acts as a scaffold, attracting progenitor cells that fill and regenerate damaged areas of cartilage or bone.

One very important thing that both approaches have in common is that they seek to transform the affected joint into an environment conducive to normal regeneration.

Fast and positive progress

In animal studies, the results were encouraging. Treated joints return to their healthy condition within four to eight weeks. Furthermore, in more severe injuries, researchers have observed complete regeneration of damaged tissue.

“In two years, we’ve been able to go from pioneering the development of these treatments to proving that they can reverse osteoporosis in animals,” Bryant said. Additional experiments with human cells obtained from patients undergoing joint replacement also showed clear regenerative effects, suggesting that this approach could be applied to humans.

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

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

This story originally appeared on WIRED in Spanish It was translated from Spanish.