The Sunday Times (London): It took my savings and 14 years — but I’m about to cure arthritis, 2024, Glen Keogh

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JohnTheJack

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It took my savings and 14 years — but I’m about to beat arthritis
After Simon Westbrook was laid off by Pfizer he spent his redundancy money turning an idea on a piece of paper into a clinical triumph. It could be on the NHS in three years
Glen Keogh

Westbrook, who moved from Melbourne to study for a postdoctorate in physiology endocrinology at Cambridge University aged 26, is behind the drug known as LEVI-04, produced by his company, Levicept, which could revolutionise the treatment of osteoarthritis for the estimated 600 million sufferers worldwide.

The drug is based on a molecule he discovered while working at Pfizer, and can be delivered via a once-a-month EpiPen-style injection, where it restores protective processes to diseased joints and enables the regeneration of affected tissues. It works by blocking a compound that supports the nerve cells involved in transmitting pain signals to the brain.

It will also be an improvement on current treatments, such as multiple anti-inflammatory pills taken daily, which can cause painful gastrointestinal side-effects and increase the risk of heart attack or stroke, or powerful opioids which can be highly addictive.

The recently completed phase-two trial of 510 patients showed sufferers reporting huge reductions in pain, increased mobility and better mental health, as they found themselves unencumbered by their illness for the first time in years.


(Paywall) https://www.thetimes.com/uk/science...s-searching-for-osteoarthritis-cure-d6d69wwxz

Archive: https://archive.is/h1b5G#selection-2161.0-2161.65
 
JohnTheJack said:
It took my savings and 14 years — but I’m about to beat arthritis
After Simon Westbrook was laid off by Pfizer he spent his redundancy money turning an idea on a piece of paper into a clinical triumph. It could be on the NHS in three years
Glen Keogh

Westbrook, who moved from Melbourne to study for a postdoctorate in physiology endocrinology at Cambridge University aged 26, is behind the drug known as LEVI-04, produced by his company, Levicept, which could revolutionise the treatment of osteoarthritis for the estimated 600 million sufferers worldwide.

The drug is based on a molecule he discovered while working at Pfizer, and can be delivered via a once-a-month EpiPen-style injection, where it restores protective processes to diseased joints and enables the regeneration of affected tissues. It works by blocking a compound that supports the nerve cells involved in transmitting pain signals to the brain.

It will also be an improvement on current treatments, such as multiple anti-inflammatory pills taken daily, which can cause painful gastrointestinal side-effects and increase the risk of heart attack or stroke, or powerful opioids which can be highly addictive.

The recently completed phase-two trial of 510 patients showed sufferers reporting huge reductions in pain, increased mobility and better mental health, as they found themselves unencumbered by their illness for the first time in years.


(Paywall) https://www.thetimes.com/uk/science...s-searching-for-osteoarthritis-cure-d6d69wwxz

Archive: https://archive.is/h1b5G#selection-2161.0-2161.65
Click to expand...

Interesting

Would love to know more about the possible mechanisms. And if this might work for chronic pain like Fibromyalgia as well as the osteo pain.
 
It might be this paper.

Soluble low affinity nerve growth factor receptor sLNGFR may regulate pain in knee osteoarthritis
A. Altaie, T.M. Campbell, H. Owston, E. Jones, R. Doyle, R.J. Feibel, H. Pandit, S. Westbrook, D. Mcgonagle

OBJECTIVES
Nerve growth factor β (β-NGF) is a protein which is important to the development of neurons particularly those involved in the transmission of pain and is central to the experience of pain in osteoarthritis (OA). Direct NGF antagonism has been shown to reduce OA pain but is associated with rapidly progressive OA. The aim of the study is to investigate the ability of soluble neurotrophin receptors in the NGF pathway to modulate pain in OA.

METHODS
Synovial fluid (SF) was obtained from the knee joints of 43 subjects who underwent total knee arthroplasty. Visual analogue scale (VAS) pain scores were obtained prior to surgery. Customised-automated-ELISAs and commercial-ELISAs and LEGENDplex™ were used to measure soluble low-affinity nerve growth factor (LNGFR), soluble tropomyosin receptor kinase (TrkA), proNGF, β-NGF, other neurotrophins (NT) and cytokines including inflammatory marker TNF-α.

RESULTS
The VAS score positively correlated with β-NGF (r=0.34) and there was positive association trend with neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), BDNF and negative association trend with ProNGF. sLNGFR positively correlated with VAS (r=0.33). The β-NGF/soluble TrkA ratio showed a strong positive correlation with VAS (r=0.80). In contrast, there was no correlation between pain and the β-NGF/sLNGFR ratio (r=-0.08). TNF-α positively correlated with β-NGF (r=0.83), NT-3 (r=0.66), and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) (r=0.50) and negatively with ProNGF (r= -0.74) and positively correlated with both soluble TrkA (r=0.62), sLNGFR (r=0.26).

CONCLUSIONS
This study suggests that endogenous or cleaved sLNGFR, but not soluble TrkA may participate in OA pain modulation thus supporting further research into soluble LNGFR as a therapeutic target in OA.

Link (Clin Exp Rheumatol)
 
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