Abstract: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common chronic joint disease,whose main pathological changes are the degeneration of articular cartilage and secondary bone hyperplasia.The limitation of current treatment methods including pain relief and joint replacement surgery is that they cannot fundamentally improve the damage of articular cartilage.The emergence of disease-modifying osteoarthritis drugs (DMOAD) may break the above limitations.They fundamentally inhibit the structural degeneration of articular cartilage by participating in the regulation of cartilage metabolic balance, regulation of subchondral bone remodeling,and control of local inflammation.Thereby,OA patients will get symptom improvement including pain relief and joint function restoration,delay the artificial joint replacement surgery, and improve the quality of life. There are still no DMOAD drugs widely available on the market worldwide.This paper reviews the background of R&D,the classification of mechanisms of action and research progress of representative drugs under different inechanisms so as to provide reference for future research.