Caterpillar fungus – new relief for osteoarthritis pain?

A compound from a parasitic mushroom that lives on caterpillars could become a new painkiller for people with osteoarthritis, according to scientists from the University of Nottingham.
The team is exploring if cordycepin, a compound found in cordyceps mushrooms (widely used in Chinese traditional medicine), has the potential to relieve the symptoms of osteoarthritis.
Cordycepin is being given as food pellets to rats and mice, to find out if it can prevent pain occurring after an injury to a joint, and whether it relieves existing pain.
“When we first started investigating this compound it was frankly a bit of a long-shot and there was much scepticism from the scientific community,” explains Dr Cornelia de Moor, who is involved in the work. “But we were stunned by the response from the pilot study, which showed that it was as effective as conventional painkillers in rats.
“This study is the first step in a potential drug development for a new class of drugs for osteoarthritis, although there are a number of hurdles we have to go through – necessarily so – before it gets nearer patients. To the best of our knowledge, cordycepin has never been tested as a lead compound for osteoarthritis pain.”
Provided the safety and effectiveness of the compound is proven, clinical trials could begin in six to ten years.
How does it work?
Cordycepin blocks the inflammatory process that cause pain in osteoarthritis, but does so in a completely different way and at a different stage in the process to existing painkillers such as non-steroidal-anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen, and corticosteroids.
As cordycepin works so differently it is likely to have benefit where NSAIDs and steroids are ineffective and may have fewer side-effects.
Self-medicating with cordyceps is not advised as we do not yet know enough about it.
“The lack of quality control means that cordyceps preparations for sale in Europe rarely contain much cordycepin, and may contain other harmful compounds,” warns Dr de Moor.
Dr Stephen Simpson from Arthritis Research UK comments:
“There is currently a massive gap in available, effective, side-effect-free painkillers for the millions of people with arthritis who have to live with their pain every day, so new approaches are very much needed.”

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