Osteoarthritis is a leading cause of disability and a source of societal cost in the elderly that is becoming more prevalent especially with increasing obesity and number of joint injuries.¹ The findings of a recent milestone meta-analysis deciphering the genetics of knee, hip, finger, thumb, and spine osteoarthritis across 826,690 individuals of European and East Asian descent, of whom 177,517 have osteoarthritis, were recently published in CELL.² This study identified 52 previously unknown osteoarthritis genetic risk variants including SOX5 and CHST3 genes, overlapping genetic components in different osteoarthritis subtypes and pathology, and an association between the genetic components and pain-related phenotypes and other traits, providing insight into the key molecular players as potential drug targets.²

Methotrexate is a multi-acting systemic antipsoriatic drug which simultaneously inhibits purine and pyrimidine synthesis, nitric oxide production and the transcription factor nuclear-factor kappa B (NFĸB) which is an inducible transcription factor for the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and