Is the secret to pain management in our own cells?
Let’s meet this $100,000 Matching Gift Challenge – and help reverse chronic pain
Since the founding of Steadman Philippon Research Institute (SPRI) in 1988, keeping active people active in the face of osteoarthritis (OA) has been a major goal.
With support from friends like you, we’ve pioneered treatments for joint and tissue injuries that can set the stage for OA; created guidelines to prevent injuries in athletes young and old; and developed arthroscopic procedures to restore and preserve damaged joints so that patients can delay – even avoid – total joint replacement.
But OA, the largest cause of disability in our nation, is still a serious concern. It affects more than 30 million Americans; as the population ages, OA’s toll will rise. And when it comes to quality of life, we believe the chronic pain of OA can have far greater impact on an individual than stiff joints or reduced range of motion.
It’s bad enough when stiffness or limited range keep us from riding a bike, skiing a slope or doing other things we love. Pain – all by itself – can exhaust people by day, and rob them of the rest they need at night.
So building on what SPRI has learned over decades of groundbreaking research, we are now embarking on projects to use biologic therapies to reverse the chronic pain of osteoarthritis.
A friend of SPRI who has asked to remain anonymous is so excited by this approach that he has pledged to match every gift we receive by December 31, 2016, dollar for dollar – up to $100,000!
If friends like you can help us raise the full $100,000 by December 31, SPRI will have $200,000 more with which to unlock the secrets of healing, find cures, and enhance lives through scientific research, innovation, education – and biologic therapies.
SPRI has been investigating biologic therapies, also known as regenerative medicine, for several years. But now SPRI’s Thos Evans, MD, a specialist in interventional pain management and regenerative medicine, is leading three major studies on patients with joint and tissue damage caused by OA. He believes it is possible to use autologous (self-made) biologics to reverse the damage – and with it, each patient’s chronic pain.
Bone marrow concentrate (BMC) is one of these autologous biologics. Bone marrow contains an enormous number of progenitor cells, which have the ability to transform into many types of cells. It also contains healing factors derived from platelets. When a small amount of a patient’s own bone marrow is removed and spun in a centrifuge, it generates a concentrate of progenitor cells and platelets.
Reinjecting the concentrate into damaged tissue should target the root of the patient’s problem – in contrast to cortisone shots, which merely mask the pain.
To evaluate the benefits of BMC therapy for chronic hip pain, Dr. Evans and his research team will inject BMC into 24 patients with moderate to severe OA of the hip and monitor their progress over the course of the next year.
A second study by the team will determine the benefits of BMC therapy for lumber intervertebral disc disorder – the lower back pain caused by bulging or herniated discs.
The team’s third project involves BMC and yet another biologic therapy, platelet-rich plasma (PRP). Like BMC, PRP is created using a centrifuge, but the patient’s blood, not bone marrow, is the source. The concentrated blood yields a high quantity of platelets and white blood cells. Earlier work by SPRI has shown that damaged muscles, tendons and ligaments benefit from injections with PRP. The inflammatory response produced by platelets and white blood cells helps the tissues regenerate blood vessels and reduce scar tissue.
Using 50 patients undergoing hip treatments with either PRP or BMC, SPRI will create a biological databank to compare patient outcomes to biomarkers present in small samples of their BMC or PRP. The goal is to better understand the relationship between specific biologic factors and cells within BMC, PRP and platelet-poor plasma.
Our anonymous donor was very excited to learn about these three new projects! Like everyone here, he recognized biologic therapies show enormous promise in helping millions of people around the world manage chronic pain. But much more research will be needed to fully harness their potential.
That’s why we hope you’ll be excited, too, and take up this $100,000 Matching Gift Challenge. Please make the most generous gift you can to SPRI, and double your impact on our ultimate goal: to improve the lives of people like you.