In recent news, researchers from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have set their hopes high, following the discovery of increasing bone formation which could help effectively treat bone loss disease. Their findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications.
Osteoporosis is a bone condition that makes bones thinner and more fragile due to reduced bone density, putting people at risk of fractures, specifically of the hip, spinal vertebrae, and wrist.
According to the National Institutes of Health, both men and women are affected, however the disease is more prevalent in women, and in the US, over 40 million people have osteoporosis or are at high risk of developing the disease due to low bone mass.
During the course of their study, the researchers came across and examined a protein known as PPARG. The team studied its effects on bone marrow stem cells also known as mesenchymal stem cells. With prior knowledge of the fact that any fractional loss of PPARG in genetically modified mice resulted in a higher rate of osteogenesis, the research team performed additional work utilizing the blueprints of structural biology.
The researchers aimed at imitating the effect on PPARG in order to increase bone formation byway of utilizing a drug entrant, as they practically created a new compound designed to repress the protein. Over the course of the study, when human mesenchymal stem cells were treated using the new compound, referred to as SR2595, there was a noticeable rise in osteoblasts, which are the cells in charge of forming new bone.
Chair of the department of molecular therapeutics and director of the Translational Research Institute at Scripps Florida, Patrick Griffin, PhD, notes that such a protein had already been sought after pharmaceutically.
“These findings demonstrate for the first time a new therapeutic application for drugs targeting PPARG, which has been the focus of efforts to develop insulin sensitizers to treat type 2 diabetes,” he said.
And because the mesenchymal stem cells that were utilized possess the ability to develop into several different cell kinds such as fat, connective tissue, bone, and cartilage, there already exists an opportunity for several kinds of treatment therapies.
“We have already demonstrated SR2595 has suitable properties for testing in mice; the next step is to perform an in-depth analysis of the drug’s efficacy in animal models of bone loss, aging, obesity and diabetes,” added Griffin.
“Because PPARG is so closely related to several proteins with known roles in disease, we can potentially apply these structural insights to design new compounds for a variety of therapeutic applications,” said the study’s first author, David Marciano. In addition, Marciano is set to examine and deliver the study’s findings for the department of genetics at Stanford University, CA.
“In addition, we now better understand how natural molecules in our bodies regulate metabolic and bone homeostasis, and how unwanted changes can underlie the pathogenesis of a disease.”
According to U.S. guidelines for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, it has been determined that up to three quarters of Caucasian women who are aged 65 and older are prime candidates for the new drug treatment.
