# Osteoarthritis and Knee Joint Pain

> **NIH VA I01** · JESSE BROWN VA MEDICAL CENTER · 2020 · —

## Abstract

ABSTRACT:
Osteoarthritis (OA), commonly referred as arthritis, causing painful joints, is among the most common chronic
conditions among veterans. Indeed, the condition is much worse among veterans than non-veterans; one of
every four veterans lives with a serious arthritic condition and individuals over age 40 are twice as likely to
develop arthritis after returning to civilian life. Osteoarthritic symptom, pain, is the key reason to seek medical
assistance, yet there is no effective way to relieve OA-induced pain.
 Despite the major negative impact that severe pain in chronic OA has on quality of life and health care
management, we only poorly understand origins of pain in OA, the molecular mechanisms driving the
pathology, and the way to effectively cure OA. Many cases eventually require joint replacement with a
prosthesis which is costly, and the limited functional life of prostheses (~10 y) can make a second replacement
necessary. These factors increase both the overall cost of treatment and the risk for associated morbidity.
Significantly, surgical procedures to address the condition typically do not result in a pain-free cure.
Our central hypothesis is that activation of Flt1 (vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1) is the major
driver of joint pain transmission by plasticity of peripheral (sensory neurons) and central glial activation; Flk1
(vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2) is primarily responsible for cartilage degeneration during the OA
progression, thus, simultaneous inhibition of Flt1 and Flk1 by pazopanib, an FDA-approved small molecule
anti-cancer drug, will act as an ideal OA disease-modifying drug (OADMD) with immediate reduction of joint
pain and gradually cartilage regeneration. The findings of our proposed research will take the field of OA
research a giant step forward: in the short term, by increasing our mechanistic understanding of the causes
and progression of OA, and by developing a novel strategy for treating OA and joint pain effectively and safely
in our pre-clinical OA animal model; and, in the longer term, by providing a rationale for clinical trials to test
pazopanib to treat OA patients.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9832134
- **Project number:** 5I01BX002647-06
- **Recipient organization:** JESSE BROWN VA MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Hee-Jeong Im Sampen
- **Activity code:** I01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2014-10-01 → 2022-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9832134

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9832134, Osteoarthritis and Knee Joint Pain (5I01BX002647-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9832134. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*