A Randomized, Double-Blind, Controlled, Multi-Center Trial of Colchicine in Calcium Pyrophosphate Deposition Disease

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease (CPPD) is a painful inflammatory crystalline arthritis that afflicts 8-10 million Americans, but targeted treatments do not currently exist and there are very few studies on this common arthritis. Some patients with CPPD report improved joint symptoms with long-term colchicine 0.6mg daily (FDA-approved dose for gout), though we currently lack tools to predict which CPPD patients will benefit. The NLRP3 inflammasome plays a key role in the pathophysiology of CPPD and cardiovascular (CV) disease, and CV risk is up to two-fold higher in patients with CPPD than matched comparators. Understanding colchicine's impact on the NLRP3 inflammasome and downstream pathways will provide critical knowledge about mechanisms by which colchicine reduces CPPD symptoms and has tremendous