Can bioactive compounds from the diet prevent the onset or slow the progression of osteoarthritis?

骨关节炎是一种致残性关节疾病，软骨被破坏，导致疼痛和不动。缺乏治疗骨关节炎的药物，由于老年人更有可能患有严重的骨关节炎，这将是一个日益严重的问题。尽管多年的研究，有没有可用的药物可以减缓或停止骨关节炎的进展。部分原因是，用于任何不危及生命的疾病的药物必须非常安全（即副作用很少）。此外，在骨关节炎中进行临床试验的成本是令人望而却步的。有必要制定新的战略来防治这一疾病。饮食和骨关节炎之间的联系已经在一定程度上得到了探索。一些食物的高摄入量与疾病的缓慢进展有关。这些分析是不完美的，因为饮食是通过一个回顾性的问卷调查在很长一段时间内记录的。然而，他们证明了饮食可以影响关节健康的概念。在食品中发现了许多具有生物活性的化合物。到目前为止，我们专注于两种化合物：萝卜硫素，在花椰菜和其他相关蔬菜中含量很高;二烯丙基二硫化物，在大蒜中含量很高。这两种化合物都被研究过对其他疾病的活性，例如心脏病和癌症，但还没有研究过关节炎。我们已经将萝卜硫素和二烯丙基二硫化物添加到我们的实验室软骨破坏模型中，软骨破坏是骨关节炎的关键方面。我们已经证明，它们在减缓或防止这些软骨破坏方面是有效的。我们还将这些化合物添加到从骨关节炎患者身上提取的人类软骨中，并在实验室中进行维护，并表明它们可以减缓破坏。因此，本研究的目的是：完善和改进我们的工作，以确定哪些食物与骨关节炎的保护有关;继续确定这些食物中的成分，这将防止或减缓软骨破坏;使用骨关节炎患者的细胞或组织在各种实验室模型中测试这些化合物;进行人体研究，以发现这些化合物是否以适当的量进入关节和/或软骨组织，以减缓软骨破坏。这些研究对于人类骨关节炎的全面临床试验至关重要，并代表了预防和治疗这种致残性疾病的令人兴奋的可能性。

Osteoarthritis is a disabling joint disease where the cartilage is destroyed leading to pain and immobility. There is a lack of medicines to treat osteoarthritis, and since the elderly population are more likely to have severe osteoarthritis, this will be an increasing problem. Despite many years of research, there are no drugs available which can slow or stop the progression of osteoarthritis. In part, this is due to the fact that drugs for use in any disease which is not life threatening must be very safe (i.e. have few side effects). Also, the costs of running clinical trials in osteoarthritis are prohibitive. There is a need to develop new strategies to combat this disease. The connection between diet and osteoarthritis has been explored to some extent. The high intake of some foodstuffs has been linked a slower progression of the disease. These analyses are imperfect since diet is recorded via a retrospective questionnaire across a long time period. Nevertheless, they prove the concept that diet can influence joint health. There are many compounds found in food which have biological activities. To date, we have focused on two compounds: sulforaphane which is found at high amounts in broccoli and other related vegetables; diallyl disulphide which is found at high amounts in garlic. Both of these compounds have been investigated for activity in other diseases e.g. heart disease and cancer, but have not been looked at in terms of arthritis. We have added sulforaphane and diallyl disulphide to our laboratory models of the cartilage destruction that is a key facet of osteoarthritis. We have shown that they are effective in slowing or preventing cartilage destruction in these. We have also added these compounds to human cartilage taken from patients with osteoarthritis and maintained in the laboratory and shown that they slow destruction. The objectives of this study are therefore: to refine and improve our work to identify which foods are associated with protection from osteoarthritis; to continue to identify the components of these foods which will prevent or slow cartilage destruction; to test these compounds in a variety of laboratory models using cells or tissues from patients with osteoarthritis; to undertake studies in man to find out whether these compounds get into the joint and/or cartilage tissue in appropriate amounts to slow cartilage destruction. These studies are essential ahead of a full-scale clinical trial in human osteoarthritis and represent an exciting possibility in the prevention and treatment of this disabling disease.