A seizure drug has just shown it can do something no approved arthritis treatment currently can. 🦴💊
Yale researchers published a study in Bioactive Materials finding that lacosamide, an FDA-approved epilepsy medication, can both relieve joint pain and reverse cartilage damage in osteoarthritis. The drug works by blocking Nav1.7, a protein previously thought to act only in pain-sensing nerves but also found to be overactive in cartilage cells during osteoarthritis. Effects were strongest when the drug was delivered directly into the joint via a specialized collagen hydrogel, which provided sustained, localized exposure at lower doses.
No currently approved drug addresses both osteoarthritis pain and the structural breakdown of cartilage. This preclinical finding opens a potential path toward a single treatment that does both.
#Osteoarthritis #JointHealth #Lacosamide #YaleMedicine #ArthritisResearch