Lacosamide Could Turn Osteoarthritis Treatment from Pain Relief to Cartilage Repair
Yale researchers repurposed lacosamide, an FDA-approved epilepsy drug, with a collagen II hydrogel delivered directly into the knee to simultaneously relieve pain and reverse cartilage damage in osteoarthritis. They show Nav1.7 drives both pain and cartilage breakdown in chondrocytes, and, at a precise low dose, lacosamide boosts cartilage-building proteins while triggering protective signals (HSP70 and midkine). The hydrogel enables weeks-long, localized drug release, outperforming daily oral dosing in preclinical tests, suggesting a faster path to human trials since the drug is already approved.
