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Solving the problem of osteoporosis may involve
no more than a special adaptation of drugs that already
exist -- beta blockers, said a researcher at Baylor
College of Medicine, who has spent more than five years
unraveling the relationship between a protein known
to control appetite and the formation of bone.
Gerard Karsenty, MD, PhD, BCM professor of molecular
and human genetics who is also on faculty at the CNRC,
has been pursuing a link between leptin, a protein
usually associated with appetite control, and the formation
and resorption or destruction of bone. In a report
in a recent issue of the journal Nature, he and his
colleagues show that in mice that the sympathetic nervous
system mediates the resorption or destruction of bone
through a special receptor on bone cells.
This effect is required for development of osteoporosis
after menopause, said Karsenty. Blocking the sympathetic
nervous system from interaction with that receptor
could prevent osteoporosis.
Currently, he and colleagues at The University of
Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, a BCM affiliate,
hope to study the effects of beta blockers in men who
have undergone a treatment for prostate cancer that
sets up a situation that is conducive to development
of osteoporosis. If the beta blockers lower the rate
of bone problems in this group, it would show that
they are as effective in people as they have proven
in mice.
Adapted from: Beta blockers: Answer to osteoporosis?
By Ruth RoRelle http://www.bcm.edu/fromthelab/vol04/is2/05mar_n1.htm |
