Medications

Do pain relievers impede bone drug's efficacy?

New research published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research suggests that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) that are taken to reduce pain may block the beneficial effects of bone-protective drugs called ...

Medical research

Hip fracture risk linked to nanoscale bone inflexibility

The study led by Imperial College London found that flexibility, as well as density, in the bone nanostructure is an important factor in assessing how likely someone is to suffer fractures.

Medications

Bone drug may be beneficial for knee osteoarthritis

Bisphosphonates (a class of drugs that prevent the loss of bone density and used to treat osteoporosis and similar diseases) appear to be safe and beneficial for osteoarthritis patients.

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes

Fracture risk associated with bisphosphonate drug holidays

Bisphosphonates have been shown to reduce the risk of osteoporotic fractures. To avoid possible side effects of long-term therapy, many patients take a drug holiday after several years of bisphosphonate therapy. A team from ...

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Bisphosphonate

In pharmacology, bisphosphonates (also called diphosphonates) are a class of drugs that prevent the loss of bone mass, used to treat osteoporosis and similar diseases.

Bone has constant turnover, and is kept in balance (homeostasis) by osteoblasts creating bone and osteoclasts digesting bone. Bisphosphonates inhibit the digestion of bone by osteoclasts.

Osteoclasts also have constant turnover and normally destroy themselves by a process called cell suicide (apoptosis). Bisphosphonates encourage osteoclasts to undergo apoptosis.

The uses of bisphosphonates include the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis, osteitis deformans ("Paget's disease of bone"), bone metastasis (with or without hypercalcaemia), multiple myeloma, primary hyperparathyroidism, osteogenesis imperfecta and other conditions that feature bone fragility.

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