The bone health problems of middle-aged and elderly people are serious, and the prevalence rate of people over 65 years old is 32%

　　Study cartoon schematic diagram. Photo courtesy of respondents

　　There are problems such as drug resistance and drug toxicity, and it is impossible to completely reverse the damaged bone — — There are still some defects in the conventional anti-bone resorption drugs and bone anabolic drugs that have been used at present. For the elderly with declining organ function, it is difficult to bear the whole course of treatment, which restricts the overall effect of conventional anti-osteoporosis treatment.

　　On the eve of the World Osteoporosis Day on October 20th, Professor Fan Shunwu, Director of Orthopedics of sir run run shaw hospital, and the research team of Professor Tang Ruikang from the Department of Chemistry of Zhejiang University published a research result in the international authoritative magazine JACS. Through a new nano-material, baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) can be adsorbed on the bone surface in a targeted way, which can inhibit osteoclasts and fundamentally prevent osteoporosis. The team proved that it can inhibit the bone destruction of osteoclasts safely and intelligently through the in vivo experiments of mouse osteoporosis model.

　　The "termite disease" that eats bones needs to be cured urgently.

　　Osteoporosis is a kind of senile bone disease with decreased bone density and bone quality due to various reasons. With the acceleration of social aging in China, its incidence rate is getting higher and higher. In 2018, National Health Commission released the epidemiological survey of osteoporosis in China for the first time. The results show that China is 40-mdash; The prevalence rate of osteoporosis in 49-year-old population is 3.2%, that in 50-year-old population is 19.2%, and that in 65-year-old population is 32%. The bone health problems of middle-aged and elderly people in China are serious, and the population with low bone mass is huge, especially women.

　　"Young people should also pay attention to early prevention. Unhealthy lifestyles such as unbalanced diet, long-term meditation, smoking and drinking, and too little sunshine will affect the accumulation of basic bone mass, and bone mass is more likely to be lost after entering middle-aged and elderly people. " Lin Xianfeng, the first author of the above research paper and the attending physician of the Department of Orthopaedics, Run Run Shaw Hospital of Zhejiang University, said that it is conservatively estimated that the population of osteoporosis in China is close to 90 million.

　　According to the existing research, the primary cause of osteoporosis is the abnormal activation of osteoclasts, and the "acid" secreted by osteoclasts is considered to be the key initial factor of osteoclasts’ bone destruction and a necessary prerequisite for their degradation of bone tissue.

　　"If human bones are compared to a big tree, then osteoclasts are termites in the big tree. Once the activities of termites become active for various reasons, even the towering trees will collapse due to long-term decay." Fan Shunwu explained.

　　At present, the main drugs for the treatment of osteoporosis in clinic can achieve the purpose of anti-bone absorption and promoting bone synthesis and metabolism by focusing on the biological regulation of osteoclasts or osteoblasts, which can slow down the loss of bone mass in the elderly to a certain extent, but there is no key initial step of killing the external acid environment formed by osteoclasts from the source.

　　"Therefore, the existing drugs cannot completely reverse the bone destruction that has occurred, and non-bone selective administration will also lead to off-target and other organ toxic side effects." Fan Shunwu said that this series of problems has led to the poor clinical treatment effect of osteoporosis.

　　After acid and alkali neutralization, it is made into "biological armor"

　　Amazingly, baking soda reacts with acid, consuming hydrogen ions and producing carbon dioxide — — The "acid-base neutralization reaction" that people can learn in middle school has been unlocked by the research team.

　　According to reports, although osteoclasts are the source of osteoporosis, many studies show that they can promote bone formation and blood vessel formation as "precursor cells" before acid secretion, so it is very important to accurately target and inhibit osteoclasts.

　　Based on the basic chemical principle of acid-base neutralization, the research team has packed nontoxic and harmless baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) into a safe nanocapsule (liposome), and loaded tetracycline with bone binding force on the surface to enable it to be targeted and adsorbed on the bone surface. When osteoclasts secrete acid to destroy bone tissue, they will immediately release sodium bicarbonate, inhibit the function of osteoclasts, and achieve the goal of fundamentally preventing osteoporosis.

　　Tang Ruikang explained that, generally speaking, after the baking soda alkaline liposome material enters the body, it will form an alkaline "biological armor" for the bone and maintain the acid-base balance of the local microenvironment of the bone.

　　Lin Xianfeng introduced that this armor is more like the "soft armor" in martial arts novels. It has no interference with ordinary cells, but it has intelligent and long-term defense effects on cells that actively attack bone tissue like osteoclasts.

　　Studies have fully confirmed that sodium bicarbonate liposome material can completely prevent osteoclasts of osteoporosis mice from secreting acidic substances and dissolving bones in animals, and it has been confirmed by a series of observation methods such as micro-CT that it can preventively prevent the loss of bone mass, so that the bone mass can be preserved to a nearly normal and healthy level.

　　"We also confirmed the safety of this study on non-acid-secreting cells (osteoblasts, chondrocytes, mesenchymal stem cells, etc.) in the main organs and bone tissues of mice." Lin Xianfeng said.

　　"The new intelligent material used in the research is not a scarce object. The key synthetic raw materials it uses, such as sodium bicarbonate, liposomes and tetracycline, are all safe substances that have been widely used in clinic for a long time." Fan Shunwu believes that this is a favorable condition for the results to be put into clinical application.

　　"This study has opened up a new idea for the treatment of osteoporosis with new nano-drugs through its precise and intelligent effect on osteoclasts." Lin Xianfeng said that on the whole, this study shows a good prospect of clinical transformation and follows the treatment concept of "from biology" that we have always admired.