New research reveals that common depression medications may be the first treatment for osteoarthritis

In middle-aged people, there will always be unbearable knee pain when going up and down the stairs, and the knees making noise when bending their legs.

Recently, researchers from Pennsylvania State University in the United States published a study titled Paroxetine-mediated GRK2 inhibition is a disease-modifying treatment for osteoarthritis in "Science Translational Medicine" and found that Paroxetine, which was used to treat depression in the past, It can not only reduce cartilage degeneration and slow down the process of OA, but also promote the regeneration of cartilage matrix and even return to normal.

Previous studies have found that the occurrence of OA is mainly caused by cartilage degeneration caused by the hypertrophy and differentiation of articular chondrocytes.

In order to study the key role of GRK2 in OA, the researchers first used immunofluorescence (IF) staining to detect its expression level in normal and injured human cartilage, and found that GRK2 is in acute (meniscal injury) and The expression in cartilage of chronic OA disease stage was significantly increased, and increased in a time-dependent manner.

In order to further clarify the role of GRK2 in the progression of OA and its effectiveness as a therapeutic target, the researchers induced chondrocyte-specific GRK2 deletion in a mouse model of OA, and then tested the progression of OA in the mice.

Paroxetine is a drug approved by the FDA for the treatment of depression.

After that, the effect of paroxetine on the pathological signal of OA chondrocytes in the treatment of OA chondrocytes was further studied by IF staining analysis of the marker protein of mature chondrocyte hypertrophy in the uncalcified cartilage area.

Fadia Kamal, the corresponding author of the study, said that they are seeking FDA approval for a new trial of the drug for the treatment of osteoarthritis.