Drug Insight: aggrecanases as therapeutic targets for osteoarthritis

In healthy cartilage, effective weight-bearing requires a high concentration of intact aggrecan. Degradation and loss of aggrecan are features of osteoarthritis (OA). It is unclear whether ADAMTS-4, ADAMTS-5, or both of these aggrecanases from the ADAMTS (a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin motifs) enzyme family, are responsible for aggrecanolysis in human OA, and at what stage of disease these enzymes are active. Several...