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Engineered periarticular approach to manage osteoarthritic pain and improve joint health

Award Number: R01AR085652
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ARTHRITIS & MUSCULOSKELETAL & SKIN DISEASES
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 06/05/2026
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 03/31/2031

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Engineered periarticular approach to manage osteoarthritic pain and improve joint health - PROJECT SUMMARY Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a common and debilitating condition resulting in damage of joint tissues including articular cartilage and underlying bone and is a leading cause of acute flare-ups and chronic pain and disability worldwide. Risk factors for developing OA are multifactorial and may include sex, aging, obesity, and prior trauma. OA impacts over 32 million Americans and is thus clinically significant, but OA is also economically detrimental — patients bear treatment expenses, while the workforce suffers from lessened productivity. To treat OA pain, patients are most often given opioids, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) or steroid injections. While these treatments may relieve pain to a certain extent, opioids are highly addictive and may result in overdose, and steroids and NSAIDs present complications when used long-term. Our long-term objective is to develop safe, effective, and non-addictive alternatives to opioids, NSAIDs, and steroids that can manage OA pain and improve joint health, which would allow patients to undergo requisite physical therapy and improve their quality of life. Towards this end, we propose here to develop a minimally invasive, non-addictive approach for managing OA pain in which patients are injected periarticularly with a combination of local anesthetics (LA) and a pain modulator, which we intend to alleviate pain for 6–24 weeks and improve joint health. LA have been increasingly used to manage OA pain, but their duration of action is short-lived. One of the goals of the proposed study is to address this limitation. Rather than administering injections intraarticularly (the standard route for steroid injections), we are exploring the use of periarticular injections to minimize complications from injecting into the joint capsule and potential chondrotoxicity of LA. In rats, our preliminary data demonstrated that the new LA formulation when delivered periarticularly extended and amplified the analgesic effects of LA, resulting in prolonged pain relief. In this proposal, we will build upon these preliminary findings by optimizing the periarticular LA formulation injection approach, including injection location, dose, and combinations of injections, to yield maximum pain relief and improve joint health and identify potential mechanism of action in vivo. Successful completion of these aims will result in a thorough understanding of the efficacy of this approach and how the periarticular injection of this LA formulation can relieve pain and improve joint health in OA and may yield a new efficacious approach for managing OA pain that does not have deleterious side effects.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2026 ( Subtotal = $658,289 )
2026	2026	UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT HEALTH CENTER	263 FARMINGTON AVE	FARMINGTON	CT	06030	CAPITOL	USA	Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Research	000	1	6/8/2026	NEW	$658,289
														Subtotal = $658,289

Grand Total All Awards = $658,289

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Engineered periarticular approach to manage osteoarthritic pain and improve joint health

Award Number: R01AR085652

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ARTHRITIS & MUSCULOSKELETAL & SKIN DISEASES

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 06/05/2026

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 03/31/2031

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