One Knee Injection To Treat Osteoarthritis?

The news here is about an early-phase clinical trial of CX-011, an investigational treatment given as a single injection into the knee joint to assess its safety, tolerability and potential to prevent cartilage deterioration in people with knee osteoarthritis (OA).

So, with that in mind it is “treat” and not “cure”, but honestly, “treat” is already quite something, when arthritis is generally viewed as something that is always just going to get worse once it starts.

How it works

The problem with a lot of anti-inflammatories is that they also reduce natural bodily functions that are also technically inflammation and/but that we actually need, such as normal immune function, and tissue repair.

In contrast, CX-011 targets GP130-related molecular signaling involved in inflammation, aiming to reduce harmful inflammatory activity without completely blocking GP130, which supports normal immune, cardiovascular and stem cell functions.

This is a huge advance on therapies such as those discussed in: Will knee injections help your osteoarthritis? Here’s what the evidence says

❝For decades, physicians have helped patients manage the pain of osteoarthritis but have never been able to stop the disease from progressing. We hope to move beyond symptom management and toward preserving joint health for the patients we serve.❞

~ Dr. Jay Lieberman

This is a randomized controlled trial that’s currently underway, so we don’t have results yet, but the previous-stage animal studies found signs of reduced joint pain, improved joint structure and function, cartilage regeneration, and tissue healing following CX-011 administration, so this is very promising indeed.

You can find the study itself, here: Evaluation of Intra-articular CX-011 to Treat Moderate to Severe Pain From Knee Osteoarthritis

Want something in the meanwhile?

We’ve written a fair bit about arthritis before, including:

• Avoiding/Managing Osteoarthritis (for this specifically)
• Avoiding/Managing Rheumatoid Arthritis (highly related topic)

There are also lots of supplements that enjoy popular claims of helping vs arthritis; not all of them actually do, but here are some good evidence-based ones: Five Supplements That Actually Work Vs Arthritis

Note: the principles will be the same for any form of OA; knee OA is just the easiest to study and the form of OA that has the most existing research already, which makes it easy to compare and contrast what things have what effects.

See also: Drug-Free Knee Pain Therapies: Which Ones Work? ← this is specifically about knee OA.

For specifically the pain management aspect, you might like to consider:

• Before You Reach For That Tylenol…
• How To Stop Pain Spreading
• How To Dial Down Your Pain
• Managing Chronic Pain (Realistically!)
• Get The Right Help For Your Pain
• The 7 Approaches To Pain Management
• Science-Based Alternative Pain Relief (When Painkillers Aren’t Helping, These Things Might)

And lastly…

Want to learn more?

For a much deeper understanding of treating knee pain, here’s a great book that we reviewed a little while back:

Treat Your Own Knee – by Robin McKenzie ← he’s a physiotherapist and not a doctor, but with 40 years of practice to his name and 33 letters after his name (CNZM OBE FCSP (Hon) FNZSP (Hon) Dip MDT Dip MT), he seems to know his stuff. His work is very well-respected, and almost any English-speaking physiotherapist will have read his books.

Take care!