A new study conducted by researchers from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute identified a medication that may help patients with osteoporosis see more promising results. The drug discovered is said to be beneficial for patients with other bone-related disorders, diabetes and obesity.
The researchers particularly investigated the effects of a nuclear receptor called peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARy) to the mesenchymal stem cells, which are the stem cells derived from the bone marrow. PPARy is the main regulator of adipocytes or fat cells, and its activation may reduce the activities involved in osteoblast or bone formation.
The study published in the journal Nature states that the researchers developed a compound called SR2595 to inhibit the action of the PPARy. When they induce the compound to mice models, bone growth were improved as manifested by the statistical increase of osteoblasts in the study subjects. Researchers are now looking at this new discovery as a potential treatment for osteoporosis.
"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," says Patrick Griffin, PhD, department chair at the Scripps Research Institute molecular therapeutics and director of the Translational Research Institute. "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."
Aside from osteoporosis, the research team expressed their intentions to conduct more investigations to discover other therapeutic effects that the SR2585 may have in other diseases.
"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," says lead study author David P. Marciano. "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."
Osteoporosis may lead to over 8.9 million fractures every year according to the International Osteoporosis Foundation. The foundation predicts that the bone disorder may affect 200 million women worldwide. The clinical prognosis for people with osteoporosis is fracture. At present, the identification of cases increasingly targets those who are at a high risk of fracture, instead of just determining those who have the bone disorder.
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