Strategies for reducing inflammation and promoting bone repair in arthritis

Chronic forms of arthritis encompass many joint inflammatory disorders, including rheumatoid arthritis (RA), an autoimmune inflammatory disease, and osteoarthritis (OA), typically a 'wear and tear' condition that is now known to also have an inflammatory etiology. The impact of inflammation in the disease prognosis and joint degradation due to impaired repair mechanisms has long been recognized for RA, and now also for OA. Both forms of arthritis are prevalent chronic health conditions, and despite recent advances, their treatment still represents an unmet medical need because of safety and efficacy concerns with currently prescribed drugs. There is an urgent need to develop and test new drugs that selectively target inflamed joints and to control articular inflammation while preventing healthy tissue damage. The therapeutics developed for RA might be useful for OA, since studies in humans and animal models demonstrate a key role for chronic, low-grade inflammation in the pathogenesis of OA. In this review, we discuss current and emerging new therapies for management of inflammation and promotion of cartilage and/or bone repair in RA and OA.