Short-term effects of highly-bioavailable curcumin for treating knee osteoarthritis: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled prospective study

Abstract

Background: We previously developed a surface-controlled water-dispersible form of curcumin and named it Theracurmin(®) (Theracurmin; Theravalues, Tokyo, Japan). The area under the blood concentration-time curve of Theracurmin in humans was 27-fold higher than that of curcumin powder. We determined the clinical effects of orally administered Theracurmin in patients with knee osteoarthritis during 8 weeks of treatment.

Methods: Fifty patients with knee osteoarthritis of Kellgren-Lawrence grade II or III and who were aged more than 40 years were enrolled in this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, prospective clinical study. Placebo or Theracurmin containing 180 mg/day of curcumin was administered orally every day for 8 weeks. To monitor adverse events, blood biochemistry analyses were performed before and after 8 weeks of each intervention. The patients' knee symptoms were evaluated at 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks by the Japanese Knee Osteoarthritis Measure, the knee pain visual analog scale (VAS), the knee scoring system of the Japanese Orthopedic Association, and the need for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

Results: At 8 weeks after treatment initiation, knee pain VAS scores were significantly lower in the Theracurmin group than in the placebo group, except in the patients with initial VAS scores of 0.15 or less. Theracurmin lowered the celecoxib dependence significantly more than placebo. No major side effects were observed with Theracurmin treatment.

Conclusion: Theracurmin shows modest potential for the treatment of human knee osteoarthritis.

Fig. 1

Study profile, including enrollments and dropouts. Seven patients in the Theracurmin group and two patients in the placebo group dropped out. Therefore, we analyzed 41 patients (18 patients in the Theracurmin group and 23 patients in the placebo group)

Fig. 2

The improved VAS scores in the two groups are presented as means ± SDs. Except for the patients with initial VAS scores of 0.15 or less, the improved VAS scores were significantly larger in the Theracurmin group than in the placebo group at 8 weeks (P = 0.023)

Fig. 3

The improved JKOM total scores for the two groups are shown as the means ± SDs

Fig. 4

NSAID necessity in the two groups. At 8 weeks only, the ratio of patients who needed celecoxib was significantly smaller in the Theracurmin group than in the placebo group (P = 0.0252)