JOEL FRIEDMAN: Harnessing an Ancient Remedy
If you had wandered into Einstein’s Falk Center seven years ago, you might have overhead Joel Friedman, M.D., Ph.D.—a regular in the gym’s noontime pickup basketball games—extolling the virtues of curcumin, a derivative of the gold-colored herb turmeric.
“I hadn’t been able to play basketball for several months because my knees hurt so much from osteoarthritis,” recalls Dr. Friedman, professor of microbiology & immunology and of medicine at Einstein. “My orthopedist had nothing to offer except suggesting I take up shuffleboard instead.” But then a postdoctoral student in Dr. Friedman’s lab told him that his grandfather, a healer in India, applied a mixture of curcumin and coconut oil to aching joints. The remedy seemed to make sense: Dr. Friedman found hundreds of papers published on the health benefits of curcumin, most notably its anti-inflammatory quality.
“After I started applying curcumin plus coconut oil to my knees—voilà!—I was able to play basketball again and resume doing Chinese martial arts,” he recalls. “It made me think that curcumin might have real potential as an osteoarthritis drug. But as I read the studies exploring curcumin as a therapy, I realized that they’d all hit the same wall: No matter how much curcumin you ingest with pills, or how much you rub on your skin, the body doesn’t absorb it too well.”
Joel Friedman, M.D., Ph.D., has developed a topical arthritis drug. (Photo by Jason Torres)
Finding the Third Ingredient
Studying the yellow curcumin concoction in his lab, Dr. Friedman discovered that fatty acids in coconut oil transported only small amounts of curcumin through the skin and into the joint. What was needed, he realized, was a third ingredient: a solvent capable of dissolving high concentrations of curcumin and its fatty-acid carrier. Finding one proved quite a challenge, since nearly all good solvents for curcumin aren’t safe to use. Finally—after a period of testing and aided by his previous research on nanoparticles—he arrived at a formula for safely delivering an effective dose of curcumin through the skin.
Dr. Friedman connected with entrepreneurs, who formed Vascarta, a company that licensed the technology from Einstein with the goal of developing it into a drug. A safe and effective topical drug for joint pain could be a boon for the 31 million Americans who suffer from osteoarthritis, the most common disability among adults. Many of them rely on oral nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which can cause serious side effects. Diclofenac, the only topical FDA-approved drug for arthritis pain, is also an NSAID; for safety reasons, the name-brand drug Voltaren and other topical diclofenac products should not be applied for more than 21 days.
"Curcumin triggers tissues to produce the signaling molecule nitric oxide, which may be a magic bullet for a number of conditions."
— Dr. Joel Friedman
So far, Dr. Friedman’s curcumin compound has been patented and has progressed through animal studies and a phase 1 trial in India to assess safety. A phase 2 trial involving osteoarthritis patients is being planned. Although reduced joint pain would be the trial’s primary outcome, Dr. Friedman believes his compound’s benefits may extend beyond the joints: The preclinical studies, he says, detected curcumin in the bloodstream after the product was topically applied.
“Curcumin triggers tissues to produce the signaling molecule nitric oxide, which may be a magic bullet for a number of conditions,” says Dr. Friedman. “One of nitric oxide’s best-known effects is vasodilation, which suggests that boosting nitric oxide levels via curcumin could potentially lower blood pressure and treat systemic problems caused by sickle-cell disease.” He also points to studies suggesting that nitric oxide may reduce systemic inflammation, a contributor to heart disease, cancer, and diabetes as well as arthritis.
“I have no doubt that prescription drugs based on curcumin will one day make it to the market,” Dr. Friedman says. “We hope to get our product there first.”