PrintA wealth of new scientific evidence and good clinical results are making biological therapies the treatment du jour for horses suffering from osteoarthritis.
Watching your equine companion suffer from the pain associated with osteoarthritis can be difficult to witness and, until recently, nearly impossible to fully alleviate. But across the country, veterinarians are working to make that conundrum a bit simpler through research into the most cutting edge biological therapies, including cultured stem cells and interleukin-1 receptor antagonist protein, or IRAP.
Osteoarthritis results from a variety of influences—age, conformation, use, conditioning, footing and other physiological factors. Horses with osteoarthritis can suffer from a group of disorders manifested by progressive deterioration of the articular cartilage (the smooth, glass-like cartilage that covers the surfaces of bones connected at a joint) along with changes in the bone and soft tissues of the joint.
When osteoarthritis begins to develop in specific joints, some, or all, of the characteristic signs of pain, inflammation, swelling of joints, stiffness in motion, and alterations in the horse’s ability to perform normally may become evident.
The new biological approaches represent a fundamental step in reversing osteoarthritis for long-term rather than short-term effects. Until recently, typical therapies involved intra-articular medications such as hyaluronic acid and/or steroids, systemic medications like NSAIDS (bute or banamine), shockwave therapy, polysulfated glycosaminoglycan such as Adequan, intravenous hyaluronic acid (Legend), stall rest, and oral supplements that contain glucosamine and/or chondroitin sulfate.
While some of these therapies aid in repairing defects in joint surfaces, others simply decrease inflammation, occasionally impeding the healing process by blanketing the pain rather than targeting a way to repair the injured tissues and/or ligaments.
IRAP To The Rescue
IRAP involves a naturally occurring protein that needs to be in balance with the general inflammatory cytokine Interleukin-1 (IL-1). In a healthy joint, these are in balanced concentrations. However, in cases of osteoarthritis, there is insufficient protein produced to block the accelerated tissue destruction, which results when there is an increase of IL-1. The by-product of this imbalance is inflammation, joint pain and ultimately, cartilage destruction.
“I believe IRAP to be at the top of the cascade when it comes to inflammation,” said David Frisbie, DVM, PhD, an assistant professor at Colorado State University.
He has tested more than 18 different medications to treat osteoarthritis. “IRAP has been the most effective way of combating osteoarthritis while preventing further deterioration,” he said.
Autologous conditioned serum, marketed in the United States as IRAP, works to protect joints by occupying receptor sites on the membrane of cartilage cells. Like the code to a security system, when certain proteins fit in and attach to the articular cartilage cell membrane, they are capable of preventing harmful proteins (like IL-1) from occupying those sites. The more IRAP present in a horse, the more receptors that can be blocked, therefore lessening articular degeneration.
