New innovations in management of degenerative joint diseases with old drugs: a review

Osteoarthritis (OA) and chronic lower back pain (CLBP) are the degenerative joint diseases that cause major loss in quality of life of patients. Traditional treatment options of oral, IV, topical route of drug administration and even surgery lacks the efficacy and fails in successful management. Hence this review focus on biomaterial based local drug delivery as a novel approach in degenerative joint diseases using in-vivo and ex-vivo models. Most of the trials conducted in these models, with several drugs like inhibitors of inflammatory mediators and degenerative factors provided successful results by prevention of inflammation, degeneration and pain relief. But it couldn't provide much data on delivery of regenerative factors. The difference between articular joints and intervertebral disc (IVD) in health and diseases should be taken into account for the future development of safe and effective treatment.