Response to: 'Correspondence on "Glucosamine and O-GlcNAcylation: a novel immunometabolic therapeutic target for OA and chronic, low-grade systemic inflammation?' by Angelides and Manolios.

The editorial by Herrero-Beaumont and Largo in the October issue1 highlighted the benefits of glucosamine (GlcN) in the treatment of rheumatic conditions but also the potential gain in treating conditions such as coronary vascular disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes. GlcN has been shown to induce an increase in O-GlcNAcylation which displays a key regulatory role in inflammation and immune activation and as discussed by Jensen et al 2 may be the mechanism by which functional recovery improves following episodes of cardiac ischaemia. By contrast, chronic decreases of O-GlcNAcylated proteins have been negatively implicated with various degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and osteoarthritis (OA).3\n\nIn our experience, patients with OA are frequently prescribed GlcN, with variable outcomes. It has been proposed that this agent accumulates in joint cartilage, and promotes the synthesis of proteoglycans.4 We have radiolabelled GlcN with 99m-Technetium (99mTc) and administered it intravenously to patients with varied rheumatic conditions including …