Scientists Test New Ways To Regrow Joints Damaged by Arthritis

Good news: Scientists may be closer to a new way to treat arthritis.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) said several experimental treatments could help regrow cartilage and bone in people with osteoarthritis.

The condition affects about 32 million Americans and happens when joints wear down over time.

Three research teams are working on new methods, mainly focused on knee osteoarthritis.

Two teams — one at Duke University and another at University of Colorado Boulder — are developing injections or infusions that may help rebuild cartilage and bone.

A third team at Columbia University is working on a more revolutionary idea: regrowing an entire knee using a 3D-printed “scaffolding” filled with bone and cartilage cells, The New York Times reported.

So far, these methods have only been tested in small animals. Results of animal studies often differ in humans.

Some treatments helped regrow cartilage in just a few months.

One method uses a drug that slowly releases in the joint and helps tissue repair itself over a certain amount of time.

Another method uses proteins that fill in damaged areas and trigger the body to regrow cartilage in spaces where it should be.

“It’s hugely promising,” Dr. Scott Rodeo, vice chair of orthopedic research at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, told The Times. He was not involved with the studies.

“Right now, everything we have just modifies symptoms,” he added. Curing arthritis by regrowing cartilage and bone “would be a paradigm shift.”

These new methods aim to fix the problem right at its source: Damaged cartilage and bone.

Researchers are testing ways to help the body’s own cells grow again.

“I tend to be very skeptical, but this surprised me,” Dr. Benjamin Alman, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon, told The Times.

Some treatments target cartilage, while others focus on remodeling bone or treating multiple joints at once.

Teams funded by ARPA-H are required to begin testing in patients within 18 months, The Times said.

The agency has invested tens of millions of dollars in the work, including more than $42 million for one team alone.

“For academic research, this is like pie-in-the-sky money,” Nadeen Chahine, a leader on the Columbia University team, added.

If the treatments work, they must eventually be made available to patients and priced at no more than 25% of current treatment costs.