European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

OSTEOARTHRITIS: OVERVIEW AND NOVEL TREATMENT APPROACHES

Heena J. Gada* and Sujata P. Sawarkar

ABSTRACT

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative joint disorder characterised by loss of articular cartilage leading to severe pain and restricted mobility in patients. It mostly affects the joints located in the hand, knees, spine, hips and shoulder region. Risk factors such as age, joint injury, excessive repetitive loading, joint dysplasia, gender, genetic predisposition, comorbidities these are some factors which are known to increase risk of osteoarthritis (OA). At molecular level, OA results from an imbalance between the peptides that promote the synthesis of the components of extracellular matrix of articular cartilage and those that induce remodelling of these components. The articular cartilage degradation in OA is due to complex interaction and upregulation of various catabolic molecules such as interleukin, TNF, MMP. Womens are more prone to osteoarthritis as compared to men. Many conventional treatments such as oral, topical, have been employed for OA but none of the them has given satisfactory results over long term therapy. Oral administration of drugs is associated with side effects such as gastrointestinal bleeding, abrupt cardiovascular events .The use of topical therapy avoids the adverse effect by reducing the systemic exposure which is associated with oral conventional NSAIDs medication. This review mainly focuses on current trends in development of drug delivery system of nano scaled based carriers, with increased localization of therapeutic agent to the target site and have prolonged action. The most significant advantage of novel systems such as microemulsion, vesicular systems, nanocarriers over the conventional drug delivery is to provide target specific drug delivery and sustained action.

Keywords: Osteoarthritis, drug delivery, Microemulsion, Liposomes, Ethosomes, Nanoparticles.