“The non-toxic and harmless Baking Soda (Sodium Bicarbonate) is encapsulated in a safe nano ‘capsule’ (liposome), and the tetracycline with bone-binding force is mounted on the surface to adsorb to the bone surface.When osteoclasts destroy bone tissue by secreting acid, they can immediately release Sodium Bicarbonate, inhibiting the function of osteoclasts and achieving the goal of preventing osteoporosis fundamentally.” A team led by Professor Shunwu Fan of the Department of Orthopedics, Run Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University, and Professor Ruikang Tang of the Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University, recently published their findings in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
According to the introduction, osteoclasts are like the termites in the tree, once active, even the towering tree, but also because of long-term decay and fall. Current studies believe that the primary cause of osteoporosis is abnormal activation of osteoclasts, and acid secretion by osteoclasts is considered to be the key initial factor of bone destruction by osteoclasts and the necessary prerequisite for their degradation of bone tissue.
The main drugs in clinical treatment of osteoporosis achieve the purpose of anti-bone resorption and promoting bone anabolism by focusing on the regulation of osteoclast or osteoblast biology, but they do not kill the key initial step of the external acid environment of osteoclast formation from the source. Therefore, existing drugs can slow down bone loss in the elderly to a certain extent, but often cannot completely reverse the bone destruction that has occurred, and selective administration of nonbone drugs can also lead to off-target and other toxic side effects of organs.
In addition, although osteoclasts are the cause of osteoporosis, many studies have shown that they play a role in promoting bone formation and angiogenesis as “precursor cells” before secreting acid. Therefore, it is very important to accurately inhibit osteoclasts.
Fan Shunwu’s team and Tang Ruikang’s team pioneered the targeting of Sodium Bicarbonate liposomes to bone surface, forming an alkaline protective layer, neutralizing acid secreted by osteoclasts, inhibiting abnormal activation of osteoclasts, and reshaping the balance of bone microenvironment to achieve the effect of treating osteoporosis.
Lin Xianfeng, an orthopedic surgeon at Run Run Shaw Hospital of Zhejiang University, said that the study found that alkaline liposome materials and the local acidic environment of osteoclasts induced a large number of apoptosis of osteoclasts, and further released a large number of extracellular vesicles.”It’s like a set of dominoes, which are pushed one layer at a time and magnified one step at a time to fully resist the bone destruction caused by the strengthening of osteoclasts.”
Post time: Jan-27-2021