Targeting the Intestine to Treat Osteoporosis

Abstract

Osteoporosis is estimated to affect 200 million women worldwide. After the age of 50, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men will experience an osteoporotic fracture and its associated pain, increased dependency, morbidity and mortality (National Osteoporosis Foundation). While there are a variety of pharmaceuticals available to treat osteoporosis, the number of people with osteoporosis continues to grow. This is in part due to reduced treatment compliance and reduced prescriptions for osteoporosis medications (Khosla and Shane, 2016). Thus, there is a need for expansion of safe, non‐prescription based treatment options for prevention or treatment of early stage osteoporosis. My talk will discuss development of therapeutics targeting the gut‐bone axis, which represents a novel, rapidly growing area of research. Reports from our lab and others indicate a key role for the microbiota in regulating bone density. Prebiotic and probiotic modulation of the intestinal microbiota and gut function is demonstrated to benefit bone health parameters in animal models and humans. Our studies and reports by others indicate that bone responses to gut manipulations are regulated by many factors including sex hormones, inflammation status, disease condition and age. Identification of specific signaling mechanisms (gut barrier function, microbiota composition, probiotic metabolites and secretory factors) will lead to further optimization of straightforward and cost‐effective treatments.Support or Funding InformationNIH DK101050, NIH AT007695This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.