Its great that PPS is a powerful anti-inflammatory, and that is likely part of its MOA, but I don't think we should read too much into that.
We have many anti-inflammatories. NSAIDs obviously. But also flavonoids, senolytics, niconamide riboside, fish oil, specialised pro-resolving mediators (SPMs), and many more.
SPMs are pretty interesting and a fairly recent discovery of some significance. They are molecules whose job it is to signal to the body that it is time to turn inflammation off. Nothing in the body happens by chance, everything is part of some signalling network. That includes inflammation. Inflammation doesn't just dissipate. Its is actively turned ON by cytokines etc., and it is actively turned OFF by SPMs. A lot of SPMs are derived from omega-3 fatty acids, which is in fish oil. So we now know why fish oil has its anti-inflammatory effect. Pure EPA (eicosapenteneoic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid in fish oil) is a prescription drug (Vascepa) used to help inflammatory conditions. You can also buy SPMs themselves (I don't think a prescription is required, but they are expensive) and they are being used for sporting injuries and improving recovery times.
I take steps to control inflammation as it drives a lot of ageing processes. I take nicotinamide riboside, apigenin, and high dose fish oil daily at a dose equivalent to low dose Vascepa. I periodically take fisetin, a drug that destroys senescent cells which are the source of uncontrolled inflammatory signalling. I put myself into dietary ketosis for a month or so several times a year - ketones are also a powerful anti-inflammatory. I had my C-reactive protein levels checked, which is a biomarker for inflammation, and they were basically non-existent.
The point of all this is to say that in someone very actively controlling and monitoring their systemic inflammation, my low inflammation levels did not stop the development of my OA, and did not lead to its recovery. Inflammation suppression alone is not enough to protect from or resolve OA.
So this means that PPS's anti-inflammatory effects are not the main reason for its anti arthritic effects, although no doubt they contribute to the overall outcome. PPS is doing something else that all these other anti-inflammatories are not doing. Personally I think stem cell mediation must be an important part of the story. Suppressing inflammation is good to have, but there's more important things going on.
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