Age Related Osteoarthritis: Regenerative Therapy, Synthetic Drugs, and Naturopathy to Combat Abnormal Signal Transduction

Introduction: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common chronic inflammatory neurodegenerative joint disorder that causes disability among the geriatric population. It involves the loss of the articular cartilage that covers the end of a long bone thereby failing to prevent the friction between the joints. Methods: The literature on the prevalence of OA and different risk factors like physical inactivity, obesity, and joint injury was searched through Google scholar, PubMed, research gate, Wikipedia, etc for the review. Results: OA has affected around 303 million people globally. It affects the knee, hip, hands, and spine joints owing to common symptoms like pain, swelling, and disability. Further, OA-associated disability causes depression leading to an economic and social burden with physical isolation, thus making it more severe for older people in their day-to-day lifestyle. Presently, no permanent cure has been developed for OA. Although, there are many risk factors of OA, among them, the most prominent one is considered to be “aging”. Most people crossing the age of 65–70 years have been associated with changes in the joints (one or more) about the development of OA. Several theories related to cellular aging and cell senescence with OA development. However, aging alone does not cause this condition; it is accelerated by the abnormal signal transduction followed by the progression of OA. The blueprint of possible management of OA by the different approaches has been the prime concern of this review work. Conclusion: An outline of the risk factors of abnormal signal transduction and different treatment approaches, including regenerative therapy, synthetic drugs, and naturopathy manipulating them concerning OA are discussed in this review which might be an answer to the age-old issue of geriatrics.