A study published in Frontiers in Veterinary Medicine, has reported the effectiveness of oral treatment with agmatine (administered as G-Agmatine brand) in alleviating symptoms at early stages of osteoarthritis in dogs.
Osteoarthritis (OA), the most common form of arthritis, affects millions of people and animals worldwide. Also known as “wear and tear,” OA occurs when the cartilage cushion of joints breaks down, usually in older individuals, leading to pain, stiffness and swelling, typically affecting hands, knees, hips and spine joints. Existing drug treatment consists mainly of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which are sometimes ineffective and are fraught with a myriad of gastrointestinal, kidney and liver adverse effects. But a team of scientists from Louisiana State University, School of Veterinary Medicine, led by Mandi J. Lopez in collaboration with Gilad&Gilad Research (Nevada), have now found that oral agmatine, a metabolite of the amino acid arginine, can be superior to NSAIDs treatment for dogs suffering from hip joint OA at the early stages of the disease.
Using a crossover design, nine hound-type dogs, treated six months earlier with the NSAID carprofen (4.4 mg/kg, daily) for seven days, were randomly assigned to start a 28-day period of treatment with either agmatine (25 mg/kg of G-Agmatine brand, twice daily) or placebo and, following a 14-day washout interval, the treatment was switched (dogs treated with agmatine, received placebo and vice versa) for additional 28 days. The study was conducted in a blind fashion, with coded treatments and researchers unaware (blind) of the treatment identity. Severity of OA was quantified by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and pain was assessed by measuring ground reaction forces before and after each treatment period.
The results support agmatine over carprofen treatment to improve limb use in dogs with early or mild hip joint OA, while carprofen may be better for dogs with moderate OA. The study suggests that agmatine may afford pain reduction during initial disease stages while NSAIDS during later stages. It is implied that a combined therapy may be more effective than either alone.
Funding for the study was provided by the American Holistic Veterinary Medical Foundation.
