Protein jab could ease the agony of arthritic joints
Sheepish Charles greets ‘feisty’ four-legged recruit to regiment
AN INJECTION that could ease the misery of arthritis for millions of sufferers has been developed by scientists, it was revealed yesterday.
The jab delivers a protein directly into the joint which boosts cartilage generation and reduces inflammation.
Experiments on rats and human cells have been so successful that trials on patients are now being planned.
The breakthrough could reduce the need for hip and knee replacement surgery which costs the NHS more than £1billion a year.
Promising
Denis Evseenko, Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, said: “The goal is to make an injectable therapy for an early to moderate level of arthritis.
“It is not going to cure arthritis but it will delay the progression of arthritis to the damaging stages when patients need joint replacements, which account for a million operations a year in the United States.”
In Britain, 10 million people suffer from arthritis – 8.5 million of them having the most common form, osteoarthritis, which is caused by wear and tear on joints where the cartilage that cushions movement is worn away.
The new jab also has the potential to treat other painful inflammatory disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis, in which the body’s immune system attacks the joints.
Until now medications have been designed only to help relieve pain but these have side-effects, including stomach ulcers, high blood pressure and stroke.
Last night research bodies in Britain gave the new therapy a cautious welcome.
Natalie Carter, head of research liaison and evaluation at Arthritis Research UK, said: “Although it is still very early days, this injectable treatment could be promising for people with early onset osteoarthritis.
“This piece of research has been conducted in animals, so it is not yet clear whether this potential therapy could be useful in humans.”
About 160,000 hip and knee replacements a year are carried out by the NHS in England and Wales, with the figure rising by roughly eight per cent a year. PRINCE Charles went on parade with one of the Army’s newest recruits yesterday – a “feisty” ram named Private Derby XXXII.
But the Mercian mascot was on his best behaviour during the Prince’s visit to mark his 10 years as the regiment’s colonel-in-chief.
Charles, 69, was introduced to the 20-month-old Swaledale ram by handlers Ram Major, Corporal Philip Thornton, and Ram Orderly, Private Lee Bradbury, at the regiment’s barracks at Bulford Camp on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.
Charles asked if the new ram was trained and “does he behave himself reasonably well?”. The Ram Major replied: “He’s a little bit feisty, Sir.”
Donning safety goggles and a helmet, Charles also went for a ride in an armoured Warrior vehicle on Salisbury Plain and described the experience as “brilliant”.