PLGA from PolySciTech used in development of microparticle-based treatment of osteoarthritis

 

Osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease affecting the cartilage in joints leading to significant damage, pain, and loss of functionality. Non-surgical treatment options are highly limited to symptomatic relief. Drug delivery to cartilage and bone tissues in a systemic sense is complicated by relatively poor blood flow in these area. Recently, researchers at Indian Institute of Science and MS Ramaiah Medical College (India) used PLGAs (cat# AP041, AP089, AP036) from PolySciTech (www.polyscitech.com) to create a series of microparticles to release rapamycin locally. This drug acted to prevent senescence and increase cartilage production. This research holds promise to improve therapies against arthritis. Read more: Dhanabalan, Kaamini M., Ameya A. Dravid, Smriti Agarwal, Ramanath K. Sharath, Ashok Kumar Padmanabhan, and Rachit Agarwal. "Intra‐articular Injection of Rapamycin Microparticles Prevent Senescence and Effectively Treat Osteoarthritis." Bioengineering & Translational Medicine: e10298. https://aiche.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/btm2.10298

“Trauma to the knee joint is associated with significant cartilage degeneration and erosion of subchondral bone, which eventually leads to osteoarthritis (OA), resulting in substantial morbidity and healthcare burden. With no disease-modifying drugs in clinics, the current standard of care focuses on symptomatic relief and viscosupplementation. Modulation of autophagy and targeting senescence pathways are emerging as potential treatment strategies. Rapamycin has shown promise in OA disease amelioration by autophagy upregulation, yet its clinical use is hindered by difficulties in achieving therapeutic concentrations, necessitating multiple weekly injections. Rapamycin-loaded in poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) microparticles (RMPs) induced autophagy, prevented senescence, and sustained sulphated glycosaminoglycans(sGAG) production in primary human articular chondrocytes from OA patients. RMPs were potent, nontoxic, and exhibited high retention time (up to 35 days) in mice joints. Intra-articular delivery of RMPs effectively mitigated cartilage damage and inflammation in surgery-induced OA when administered as a prophylactic or therapeutic regimen. Together, the study demonstrates the feasibility of using RMPs as a potential clinically translatable therapy to prevent the progression of post-traumatic osteoarthritis.”