The drug semaglutide is already proving extremely efficient in tackling diabetes (beneath the model identify Ozempic) and weight reduction (as Wegovy), and a brand new research suggests it will possibly do wonders for a sort of crippling knee ache too.
In a part 3 medical trial, a world workforce of researchers discovered {that a} weekly dose of two.4 milligrams of semaglutide considerably beat placebo therapies for relieving knee osteoarthritis ache, lowering weight, and enhancing the flexibility to finish bodily actions like strolling.
For some individuals, the ache discount was so drastic that they have been successfully “treated out of the study”, rheumatologist Henning Bliddal, from Copenhagen College Hospital in Denmark, advised Nature. It is a ray of hope for the a whole bunch of tens of millions of individuals dwelling with knee osteoarthritis.
The arthritic situation is introduced on when the protecting cartilage within the knee joints will get worn away, inflicting ache and stiffness that may be fairly extreme. Weight problems is a serious threat issue for knee osteoarthritis, and shedding weight might help scale back the ache – two good the reason why the researchers wished to have a look at semaglutide.
Semaglutide is what’s often called a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA): primarily, it mimics the GLP-1 hormone that will get produced after we eat, and tips the mind into considering we’re full.
That is going to assist with weight reduction, however the drug additionally works as an anti-inflammatory, calming down overreactions from the physique’s immune system that set off swelling and tissue harm – which helps to clarify the discount in ache.
On common, physique weight dropped 13.7 p.c within the group given semaglutide in comparison with 3.2 p.c given placebos, whereas the reported ache scores dropped 41.7 factors and 27.5 factors respectively (the ache scale used runs from 0 to 96).
There are a number of caveats to drop in right here: the research was partly funded by Novo Nordisk, which manufactures semaglutide. Additionally, whereas individuals got recommendation about weight-reduction plan and bodily exercise routines in the course of the trial, there have been no checks on how a lot of this recommendation was adopted.
It is also price taking into account that semaglutide in its varied kinds is an costly drug, and that weight can shortly pile again on when doses are stopped. Getting individuals to take the drug long run may very well be difficult.
Regardless of these points, the research outcomes supply loads of early promise for a future remedy for knee osteoarthritis and the debilitation that goes together with it. There are therapies at present accessible, however they usually include limitations or unwanted effects.
These with the situation are sometimes caught in a bind: realizing that bodily exercise and train might help them drop some weight and enhance their signs, but in addition being in an excessive amount of ache to really do something about it.
“Weight reduction along with physical activity is often a recommended approach to managing painful symptoms, but adherence can be challenging,” says Biddal.
The analysis has been printed within the New England Journal of Drugs.
