Oral resveratrol falls short of easing pain in knee OA

Use of resveratrol, a natural compound found in red wine, does not improve knee pain in individuals with painful knee osteoarthritis (OA), according to a study.

This phase III trial was conducted in three tertiary care centres in France. Adults who fulfilled the 1986 American College of Rheumatology criteria for knee OA and reported a pain intensity score of at least 40 on an 11-point numeric rating scale (NRS) in 10-point increments (0, no pain, to 100, maximal pain) were enrolled in this study.

The authors randomized eligible participants to receive oral resveratrol (40 mg twice a day for 1 week, then 20 mg twice a day) or matched oral placebo for 6 months. They then measured the mean change from baseline in knee pain on a self-administered 11-point pain NRS at 3 months.

A total of 649 individuals were assessed for eligibility between 20 October 2017 and 8 November 2021. Of these, 142 (22 percent, mean age 61.4 years, 71 percent women) were randomized to the resveratrol (n=71, 50 percent) and placebo groups (n=71, 50 percent).

The mean knee pain score among participants at baseline was 56.2/100. Following treatment, the mean reduction in knee pain at 3 months was ‒15.7 (95 percent confidence interval [CI], ‒21.1 to ‒10.3) in the resveratrol group and ‒15.2 (95 percent CI, ‒20.5 to ‒9.8) in the placebo group (absolute difference, ‒0.6, 95 percent CI, ‒8.0 to 6.9; p=0.88).

Serious adverse events deemed unrelated to the interventions were similar between the resveratrol and placebo groups (4 percent vs 3 percent).

“Our study has limitations in that it was underpowered and the effect size, estimated to be 0.55, was optimistically estimated,” the authors said.