As a degenerative disease that gradually wears away at the joint cartilage and causes great pain for sufferers, scientists are searching far and wide for potential cures for osteoarthritis. For researchers at Pennsylvania State University, that search has led them to an approved anti-depressant drug, which they’ve found interferes in the chain of events leading to the condition, halting its progress and even promoting the regeneration of cartilage.
The breakthrough that may provide the first-ever treatment for osteoarthritis centers on an enzyme called G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2). The Penn State team had established through earlier research that the activity of this enzyme plays a key role in the way cells proliferate in heart and kidney disease, which has some parallels with the way the pathological growth of cartilage cells leads to osteoarthritis. Scientists call this process chondrocyte hypertrophy, but have been unable to pinpoint the reasons behind it.