Future Aspects of Clinical Osteoarthritis Therapies in the Continuum of Translational Research

Abstract

AbstractOsteoarthritis (OA) affects a significant number of the worldʼs adult population. In recent years different causal approaches to treat OA based on new translational knowledge have been developed. This review article provides, a brief overview of new findings on the pathophysiology and genetics and the interplay between biomechanics, pain and body weight. Current pharmacological and reconstructive surgical treatment options as well as studies on novel regenerative and molecular therapies of OA, such as applying NGF, FGF-18, TNF-α, Wnt signaling pathway inhibitors, and TGF-β1 gene therapy are discussed. The basis of this work is a selective literature search in PubMed, ScienceDirect and Google Scholar. Selected new findings are discussed in the clinical perspective of OA.