Bisphosphonate
hideIn 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.
For more information about Bisphosphonate, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
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News tagged with bisphosphonates
Space-related radiation research could help reduce fractures in cancer survivors
Sep 15, 2009 |
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A research project looking for ways to reduce bone loss in astronauts may yield methods of improving the bone health of cancer patients undergoing radiation treatment.
Yeast unravels effects of chemotherapy drugs
Sep 09, 2009 |
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Until now, the mode of action of nitrogen-containing bisphosphonate (N-BP) cancer drugs, used to relieve bone pain and to prevent skeletal complications in bone metastasis, has been almost entirely unknown. Researchers writing ...
Buyer beware: Estrogen supplements not as effective as claimed
Sep 02, 2009 |
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Dietary supplements claiming to help postmenopausal women with bone health may not be doing what they say, according to new research from Purdue University.
Denosumab increases bone density, cuts fracture risk in prostate cancer survivors
Aug 11, 2009 |
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Twice-yearly treatment with denosumab, a new targeted therapy to stop bone loss, increased bone density and prevented spinal fractures in men receiving androgen-deprivation therapy for prostate cancer. The report from an ...
Monitoring bone density in older women is unnecessary and potentially misleading
Jun 23, 2009 |
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Monitoring bone mineral density in postmenopausal women taking osteoporosis drugs (bisphosphonates) is unnecessary and potentially misleading, concludes a study published on BMJ.com today.
X-rays help predict permanent bone damage from bisphosphonates
May 07, 2009 |
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Breast cancer patients, individuals at risk for osteoporosis and those undergoing certain types of bone cancer therapies often take drugs containing bisphosphonates. These drugs have been found to place people at risk for ...
New drug agent knocks out multiple enzymes in cancer pathway
Mar 25, 2009 |
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A team of 24 researchers from the U.S., Europe, Taiwan and Japan and led by University of Illinois scientists has engineered a new anti-cancer agent that is about 200 times more active in killing tumor cells ...
USC dentist links Fosomax-type drugs to jaw necrosis
Jan 01, 2009 |
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Researchers at the University Of Southern California, School Of Dentistry release results of clinical data that links oral bisphosphonates to increased jaw necrosis. The study is among the first to acknowledge that even short-term ...
