How can chondroitin can stabilize your osteoarthritis?
Structure modifying osteoarthritis drugs are drugs that reverse or stabilize osteoarthritis. Chondroitin sulfate is a slow acting drug. It has a slow onset of action, but the benefits last for a long period after the end of treatment. Many studies show chondroitin sulfate having anti-inflammatory activity and can protect cartilage.
Glossary
Osteoarthritis: Osteoarthritis is a type of joint disease that results from breakdown of joint cartilage and underlying bone. The most common symptoms are joint pain and stiffness. Initially, symptoms may occur only following exercise, but over time may become constant.
The Research
Curr Drug Targets Immune Endocr Metabol Disord. 2004 Jun;4(2):119-27.
The pathobiology of osteoarthritis and the rationale for using the chondroitin sulfate for its treatment.
Volpi N1.
- 1Department of Biologia Animale, Biological Chemistry Section, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy. volpi@unimo.it
Abstract
Structure-modifying osteoarthritis (OA) drugs are agents that reverse, retard, or stabilize the pathology of OA, thereby providing symptomatic relief in the long-term treatment. The objective of this review is to evaluate the literature on chondroitin sulfate (CS) with respect to the pathobiology of OA to ascertain whether this agent should be classified as a symptomatic slow-acting drug (SYSADOA), a compound that has a slow onset of action and improve OA symptoms after a couple of weeks. CS exhibits a wide range of biological activities and from a pharmacological point of view it produces a slow but gradual decrease of the clinical symptoms of OA and these benefits last for a long period after the end of treatment. Many literature data show that CS could have an anti-inflammatory activity and a chondroprotective action by modifying the structure of cartilage. These properties are also related to the oral adsorption of this molecule as high-molecular mass compounds having clusters of sulfate groups and high charge density capable of exert their chondroprotective activity in vivo.
