Nanomaterials for osteoporosis treatment

In osteoporosis research, there are several major barriers that exist for the use of any pharmaceutical agents to stimulate new bone formation. Because of these limitations that even the best strategies to sufficiently increase bone mass (although, to date, still unproven) require at least one year to see any change; a time period not acceptable especially for the elderly. For these reasons, in this study we used nanotechnology (or the design of materials with 10/sup -9/ m dimensions) to develop novel drug-carrying systems that will specifically attach to osteoporotic (not healthy) bone. Moreover, some of these novel drug carrying systems will then distribute pharmaceutical agents locally to quickly increase bone mass. Efforts will focus on the prolonged release of bioactive agents (bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2)) to efficiently regenerate enough bone for the patient to return to a normal active lifestyle. Particularly, inorganic biodegradable nanomaterials (including ceramics like hydroxyapatite or HA) will be functionalized with bioactive chemicals. Such bioactive groups will be placed on the outer surface of the nanoparticle systems using various techniques. The outer coating of the embedded nanoparticle systems will also be created to have different biodegradation rates for the controlled release of embedded bioactive agents to the target site.