Osteoblast-n-Osteoclast: Making Headway to Osteoporosis Treatment

Abstract

Background: Bone is a dynamic tissue that continuously undergoes the modeling and remodeling process to maintain its strength and firmness. Bone remodeling is determined by the functioning of osteoblast and osteoclast cells. The imbalance between the functioning of osteoclast and osteoblast cells leads to osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is divided into primary and secondary osteoporosis. Generally, osteoporosis is diagnosed by measuring bone mineral density (BMD) and various osteoblast and osteoclast cell markers.

Methods: Relevant literature reports have been studied and data has been collected using various search engines like google scholar, scihub, sciencedirect, pubmed, etc. A thorough understanding of the mechanism of bone targeting strategies has been discussed and related literature has been studied and compiled.

Results: Bone remodeling process has been described in detail including various approaches for targeting bone. Several bone targeting moieties have been stated in detail along with their mechanisms. Targeting of osteoclasts and osteoblasts using various nanocarriers has been discussed in separate sections. The toxicity issues or Biosafety related to the use of nanomaterials have been covered.

Conclusion: The treatment of osteoporosis targets the inhibition of bone resorption and the use of agents that promote bone mineralization to slow disease progression. Current osteoporosis therapy involves the use of targeting moieties such as bisphosphonates and tetracyclines for targeting various drugs. Nanotechnology has been used for targeting various drug molecules such as RANKLinhibitors, parathyroid hormone analogues, estrogen agonists and antagonists, Wnt signaling enhancer and calcitonin specifically to bone tissue (osteoclast and osteoblasts). So, a multicomponent treatment strategy targeting both the bone cells will be more effective rather than targeting only osteoclasts and it will be a potential area of research in bone targeting used to treat osteoporosis. The first section of the review article covers various aspects of bone targeting. Another section comprises details of various targeting moieties such as bisphosphonates, tetracyclines; and various nanocarriers developed to target osteoclast and osteoblast cells and summarized data on in vivo models has been used for assessment of bone targeting, drawbacks of current strategies and future perspectives.

Keywords: Osteoporosis; bone remodeling; bone targeting; metastasis; osteoblast; osteoclast.