Particularly disabling, osteoarthritis of the hand does not currently benefit from curative treatment. We barely manage to relieve the people who suffer from it or to delay the progression of the disease, as is the case for the other localizations of osteoarthritis.
But this situation might be set to change, at least if a new scientific study is to be believed. Published on December 21 in the journal Science Translational Medicine, it highlights a potential new drug to treat this pathology: le Talarozole. Originally, this drug known as an agent blocking the metabolism of retinoic acid, which then increases its production, had been tried for acne and psoriasis, but the tests were unsuccessful.
Here, researchers from the University of Oxford (UK) started by studying a common genetic variant, linked to severe osteoarthritis of the hands. Using patients recently operated on the hand, and animal models, they were able to observe that retinoic acid levels were particularly low in people at risk of severe hand osteoarthritis. Experiments carried out in mice then made it possible to show that the fact of boost retinoic acid synthesis suppressed inflammation of articular cartilage, identifying Talarozole as a viable treatment option for osteoarthritis.
Since Talarozole is a priori safe for humans, a small…
