Drugs Block Bone Loss But Not Bone Formation

THURSDAY, Sept. 11 (HealthDay News) -- A new class of compounds blocks bone loss without affecting parathyroid hormone-induced bone formation, unlike the bisphosphonate class of drugs used to treat osteoporosis, according to a report published online Sept. 4 in Endocrinology.

Aymen I. Idris, Ph.D., from the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom, and colleagues tested the effect of a series of compounds on bone formation and resorption in culture and in ovariectomized mice.

The researchers found that all compounds caused osteoclast death and none inhibited osteoblast function even at concentrations up to 20 micromolar. The most potent compound, ABD350, inhibited osteoclast formation by 50 percent at a concentration of 1.3 micromolar and prevented bone loss in ovariectomized mice at a concentration of 5 mg/kg/day. ABD350 also did not inhibit parathyroid hormone-induced bone formation in ovariectomized mice, unlike the bisphosphonate Alendronate, the investigators found.

"In conclusion, the biphenyl carboxylic acid derivatives like ABD350 represent a new class of antiresorptive drugs which inhibit osteoclast activity but have no significant inhibitory effects on osteoblast activity in vitro or parathyroid hormone-induced bone formation in vivo," Idris and colleagues write.

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