by Michael Allen, Horizon: The EU Research & Innovation Magazine

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Millions of people in Europe and elsewhere suffer degeneration of joint cartilage in the knee, driving EU research into better treatments.

Beyond making a tray of sushi rolls delectable, the potential uses of seaweed are growing fast amid discoveries that it may do everything from improve diets to ease bowel disease.

Now seaweed is the focus of EU research into helping the millions of people worldwide who suffer from degeneration of cartilage in that oh-so-crucial joint: the knee.

Dance away

Called osteoarthritis of the knee, the condition typically emerges as of middle age and causes joint pain as well as stiffness. The hindrance can leave even the shyest and clumsiest dancers in their youth yearning for a renewed chance to strut their stuff on the floor.

"People with knee osteoarthritis have severe pain," said Liam Farrissey, chief executive officer of an Irish medical-device company called CrannMed. "They can't sleep, they can't move."

There are currently no ways to stop or reverse osteoarthritis of the knee and pharmaceutical treatments such as pain killers are unsuitable for long-term use.

But new insights into the condition could offer a solution: seaweed injections.

Around 360 million people globally face osteoarthritis of the knee, according to the World Health Organization. In Europe, an estimated 13% of adults have the joint condition. Most endure 10 to 15 years of increasing pain and decreasing agility before having to resort to knee-replacement surgery.

Osteoarthritis used to be thought of as just wear and tear. Bone rubbing on the knee cartilage causes it to break down, leaving bone rubbing on bone.

But it's now regarded also as an inflammatory disease. As the knee wears down, it becomes inflamed and new, tiny blood vessels known as "neovessels" form around the inflammation.

All this adds to the pressure on the knee joint, which in turn increases erosion and leads to more inflammation and additional neovessels.

"There is an inflammatory cascade that accelerates the breakdown of the cartilage in the knee," said Farrissey.

Renewed promise

He leads a research project to advance a breakthrough treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee based on seaweed.

Called EmboSure after the new method, the two-year project runs through April 2024.

The research builds on—and offers more promise than—a discovery almost a decade ago that briefly created hopes of a breakthrough.

In 2014, scientists in Japan came up with the idea of destroying the neovessels to cure the inflammation.

In a series of studies, the scientists injected tiny particles known as microspheres into the knees of people with osteoarthritis. The idea was that the spheres would block blood flow to the neovessels and kill them, a process known as "embolization."

People reported big reductions in pain and MRI scans showed improved knee function, with the effects lasting for at least four years.

But there was a catch: the researchers relied on microspheres made of imipenem—a powerful broad-spectrum antibiotic used to treat multidrug-resistant bacterial infections.

As a result of concerns about antimicrobial resistance and the declining effectiveness of imipenem, its widespread use in a non-infectious disease was ill-advised.

"Great outcome with lots of potential, but what they used is not something that can be launched globally," said Farrissey.

More information:

• EmboSure

• MEFISTO

Provided by Horizon: The EU Research & Innovation Magazine 

This article was originally published in Horizon, the EU Research and Innovation Magazine.