Role of Copper-Albumin Complex in Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis in Human:a Pilot Prospective Comparative Study

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a complex disease process involving the whole synovial joint. In OA articular cartilage is lost through a combination of degenerative and inflammatory phenomena, which are often accompanied by joint swelling, pain, stiffness and loss of joint mobility. The pathogenesis of OA is multifactorial and is considered to be a metabolically active process, predominantly due to the poor regenerative properties of articular cartilage after damage. The most commonly affected joint is the knee, and OA has a higher occurrence in older adults particularly women. Because patients generally present in the clinic after these symptoms of the illness develop, most treatment techniques for OA are designed to address these symptoms rather than cure the underlying disease. Current conservative treatments include lifestyle modification and pain medication (such as NSAIDs) which predominantly treat the illness (e.g., pain symptoms). There is also some promise in the use of chondroitin to decrease joint space narrowing in OA, thus treating the disease itself. Conversely, surgical intervention (partial or total joint replacement) is the preferred treatment method in end-stage disease leading to some relief of both the illness and disease.

Copper complexes can biochemically affect the cells and impinge upon metabolic pathways especially highly effective copper dependent enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD). It is predicted also that copper containing vitamins or biochemically active organic compounds such as amino acids and peptides or synthetic organic compounds in complexes can effectively scavenge superoxide radical. Additionally, recent studies showed that Cu (II) Bis (diethyldithiocarbamate) induced the expression of syndecan-4, a transmembrane heparan sulfate proteoglycan, in a dose- and time-dependent manner n via the activation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase. This submitted work has been designed to evaluate a copper chelating complex consisting of egg albumin and copper as one of the copper peptides that can be used as anti-inflammatory agent and chondroprotective in OA treatment that could be used as a substitute especially the currently used chondroprotective drugs are expensive and frequent using of drugs such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), known to be aggressive agents for gastric ulcer development.