2023-10-20 16:00:00
Receive the magazine for only €5/month + National Geographic 2024 Agenda as a GIFT Limited units!
Enjoy National Geographic Special Editions at an exclusive price for being a subscriber.
Despite its apparent rigidity, a bone is living tissue made up of cells that, like those that make up other organs, decompose and are constantly replaced by the body. Osteoporosis occurs when old bone tissue is lost faster than new tissue can be created, causing bones to become weak and brittle. The disease, which affects more than 40 million people in the United States, is more common in older women after menopause.
In Spain, between 20 and 25% of trauma service beds are occupied by patients who have suffered an osteoporotic fracture.
According to the data of the Spanish Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology, -SEGG- In Spain, between 20 and 25% of hospital trauma service beds are occupied by patients who have suffered an osteoporotic fracture. In fact, according to the report issued by the World Health Organizationonly in In the European Union, 22 million women and 5.5 million men were diagnosed in 2010. The same report states that also during 2010, in the European Union 42,809 deaths were directly related to fragility fractures related to the disease. Of these, 2,550 took place in our country.
Until now, medicine had only been able to develop a few methods to slow down this bone loss, However, new and good news may not be long in coming now that biomedical engineers from the Duke University have discovered a biochemical receptor that, when activated, not only stops the progression of the disease but can even reverse the bone degradation caused by osteoporosis. The tests have been carried out successfully on mice. The results collected in the article “Dysregulation of Ectonucleotidase-Mediated Extracellular Adenosine During Postmenopausal Bone Loss” They are published this week in the magazine Science Advances.
“The medications most currently used to treat osteoporosis can prevent bone loss, but they do not help rebuild bone,” he explains. Shyni Varghese, professor of biomedical and mechanical engineering; and materials science and orthopedics at Duke University. “We have discovered a biochemical receptor that, when activated, can do both,” he adds. Yu-Ru “Vernon” Shih, researcher in Varghese’s laboratory and lead author of the study.
How to make new bone cells
In 2014, Varghese was studying the functioning of various biomedical mechanisms based on calcium phosphate to promote bone repair and regeneration. Thus, the researcher discovered that a molecule called biochemical adenosine It played a particularly important role in promoting bone growth. “It was logical to think that the lack of this chemical substance could play an important role in the development of osteoporosis, so the researcher decided to find out.
Thus, Varghese and his team studied mice that had had their ovaries removed to mimic postmenopausal osteoporosis. They looked at the expression levels of two enzymes that help produce adenosine, as well as the levels of adenosine that travel between cells. Just as they predicted, they found that the lack of estrogen in the mice was causing the levels of both to plummet.
This is the band-aid of the future
The researchers later tested whether increasing adenosine levels in the mice would help reverse the damaging effects of the disease. But instead of pumping out adenosine directly, they injected a small molecule that activates the A2B receptor, a membrane protein that stimulates adenosine production. “The mice that received the drug were completely cured.”explains Varghese. “His bones were as healthy as those of the control group without osteoporosis.”
Step by Step
While the discovery capable of reversing osteoporosis is exciting, Creating a small molecule that activates it without side effects is a difficult task. Adenosine is created naturally throughout the body and has many functions, such as the modulation of neurons and the regulation of blood flow to various organs. Researchers cannot simply pour this substance into the bloodstream to stop bone degradation without side effects.
Creating a small molecule capable of reversing the effects of osteoporosis without side effects is a difficult task.
But with the A2B receptor identified, Varghese and others can begin looking for ways to deliver activators to bones without flooding other areas of the body. For example, one of Varghese’s students is beginning to study how to “tether” adenosine-like molecules to carriers that target exclusively bone tissue. His lab is also looking for a type of bandage that can deliver growth-supporting drugs directly to damaged or broken bones.
#giant #step #osteoporosis