IU School Of Medicine Studies Antibiotic As Treatment For Osteoarthritis

INDIANAPOLIS--Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine are conducting a study on the ability of a common antibiotic to prevent the progression of joint damage caused by osteoarthritis. The project, which is a nationwide study, is funded by an $8.3 million National Institutes of Health grant.

Kenneth D. Brandt, M.D., director of the Section of Rheumatology and a professor of medicine, is the principal investigator for the grant. IUSM is the coordinating center for the nationwide project and also is one of the six participating clinical centers.

Dr. Brandt's co-investigators at IUSM are John D. Bradley, M.D., Kenneth A. Buckwalter, M.D., Barry P. Katz, Ph.D., and Steven A. Mazzuca, Ph.D.

Dr. Brandt and his team have shown in preliminary research that doxycycline, a member of the tetracycline family of antibiotics, can protect against the breakdown of joint cartilage. Research indicates that the drug reduces the levels of several enzymes which are present in abundance in arthritic joints and are responsible for the softening and degeneration of cartilage in osteoarthritis.

Dr. Brandt believes the clinical trial may confirm that doxycycline will prevent the development of osteoarthritis in unaffected joints and will be useful in preventing the progression of the disease in joints which are already affected.

Approximately 70 female patients will be recruited at each of the six clinical centers involved in the 30-month, placebo-controlled study. The patients must be between the age of 45 and 64, have some degree of overweight and, through a knee x-ray, show evidence of osteoarthritis in only one knee. Studies indicate that 50 percent of women with osteoarthritis in one knee will develop it in the other knee wthin two years.

The IU School of Medicine is currently seeking applicants for the study. For additional information, please call 317-274-7798.

The research could have far-reaching effects for an aging population. Osteoarthritis of the knee is the leading cause of chronic disability among the elderly in the U.S. Nearly 70 percent of all people over the age of 60 have evidence of osteoarthritis, and about 30 percent of those individuals have joint pain and impaired function due to the disease.

IU has one of the nation's largest clinical and basic research programs in osteoarthritis. Research into the use of acetaminophen as an alternative to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug treatment for osteoarthritis, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1991, by Brandt and his IU School of Medicine colleagues, heralded a major change in the management of the disease.

Other work by these investigators has shown the importance of non-medicinal measures, such as provision of social support and muscle strengthening exercise, in management of osteoarthritis pain.

The five other clinical centers involved in the NIH-funded doxycycline study are the University of Alabama, Birmingham; Northwestern University, Chicago; the University of Miami, Florida; the Halifax Clinical Research Institute, Daytona Beach, Fla., and the Arthritis Center, Wichita, Kan.

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