Prospects of Gene Therapy for Skeletal Diseases

CombinatorialPrg4andIl-1raGene Therapy Protects Against Hyperalgesia and Cartilage Degeneration in Post-Traumatic Osteoarthritis

“…Recombinant IL-1Ra is available as the drug anakinra and has been approved for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. 13 Anakinra was also evaluated for OA in a clinical safety and tolerability trial where slight, but significant, improvements in pain were observed at an early time point following single intra-articular injection compared with placebo; however, given its limited half-life of only 4 hours, this effect was not sustained. 14 Gene therapy with IL-1Ra allows for sustained and/or regulated production within joint tissues and synovial fluid and has been shown to reduce cartilage degradation and to delay disease progression in animal models of posttraumatic OA.…”