Scientists at the University of Nottingham are using a parasitic mushroom that lives on caterpillars to develop a drug for people with arthritis or cancer.
The study will look at the painkilling potential of a compound in cordyceps mushrooms which are widely used in Chinese traditional medicine – and researchers expect to produce a treatment in six years.
The project, which will be led by Dr Cornelia de Moor at the university, has been paid for by charity Arthritis Research UK who have put up £260,000 for three years of work, and experts hope the drug will relieve the symptoms of osteoarthritis, a common joint condition that affects more than eight million people in the UK.
Dr de Moor said that although the research was in its early stages, the prospect of a completely new type of painkiller was very exciting.
“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,” she said. “But we were stunned by the response from the pilot study, which showed that it was as effective as conventional painkillers in rats.”
The team will now test the effectiveness of the compound, given as food pellets to rats and mice, to find out if it can prevent pain occurring after an injury to a joint, and also whether it relieves existing pain, which could see it become a long-term treatment for arthritis.
Dr de Moor will investigate whether the compound in the mushroom cordycepin acts on the knee joint or on the nerves that relay painful messages from the knee to the spinal cord, and the mechanism by which it inhibits pain
“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,” Dr de Moor said. “To the best of our knowledge, cordycepin has never been tested as a lead compound for osteoarthritis pain.”
Dr de Moor said that provided the safety and effectiveness of the compound could be proven, clinical trials could begin within six to ten years.
Researchers believe that because cordycepin works so differently it is likely to have benefit where steroids and other drugs are ineffective, and is likely to have fewer side-effects.
Director of research and programmes at Arthritis Research UK, Dr Stephen Simpson, said: “Dr de Moor’s research is certainly novel, and we believe may hold promise as a future source of pain relief for people with osteoarthritis. 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.”
Dr de Moor will also investigate cordycepin as a possible treatment for cancer during the three-year project.