Promising Therapy for Osteoarthritis

A trial has shown that a new therapy for osteoarthritis (OA) is both safe and effective.

The new therapy, called Orthokine, consists of knee-injections of the interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) protein obtained from the patient's blood. The trial of 400 patients showed that clinical results were far superior to those achieved by using standard hyaluronic acid injection and placebo. The trial was conducted at Heinrich-Heine University (Dusseldorg, Germany).

Orthokine was developed by Orthogen AG (Dusseldorf, Germany). The company notes that osteoarthritis patients and doctors are faced with a lack of alternatives following the problems with COX II inhibitors such as Vioxx.

"The problem with conventional OA-therapies such as painkillers, steroids, and hyaluronic acid is that they act on the symptoms but leave the underlying causes of the disease untouched,” observed Prof. Peter Wehling, CEO of Orthogen, a specialist in the role of cytokines in pain inhibition and tissue regeneration. In contrast, Orthokine acts on the causal mechanism of arthritis and prevents further cartilage degeneration in the joints. "Orthokine could potentially become the new standard arthritis therapy,” added Prof. Wehling.

Orthogen is a biopharmaceutical corporate group that has been active in the field of molecular orthopedics for the past 12 years. The company specializes in the development of therapeutic biologicals and realizes this work in collaboration with such institutions as Harvard University (Boston, MA, USA) and Pittsburgh University (PA, USA). Orthogen developed the first gene therapy against rheumatoid arthritis in 1995 and two years later developed the Orthokine therapy. The company is now investigating ways to grow cartilage tissue from adult stem cells.

"We are looking for ways to leverage the potential of adult stem cells for orthopedic therapies,” said Prof. Wehling.




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