A jab to beat osteoporosis
Saturday, 23 April 2011, 07:44 IST   |    1 Comments
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Bangalore: A jab to treat osteoporosis by helping build new bones and drastically reducing the frequency of treatment has been developed. Osteoporosis occurs when old bones are broken down by the body more quickly than they are built. Most of the drugs currently used to treat osteoporosis, or brittle bones, simply stop old bones from being broken down by the body. But the new medicine, which could be available in as little as three years, helps by binding to sclerostin, a protein that slows down or blocks the building of new bones. The drug stops the protein working, speeding up the bone-building process, the Daily Mail reports. Its creation began with the study of a group of people whose bones were abnormally strong due to a rare disease called sclerosteosis. Scientists identified the gene that strengthened their bones and showed that it works by stopping sclerostin from being made. In a trial on more than 400 women the 'sclerostin-antibody' jab compared favourably with existing drugs. Roger Perlmutter, of U.S. drug company Amgen, which is developing the drug with a Belgian company, said: "We are encouraged by the results of this study."
Source: IANS
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