Aberdeen scientists receive cash boost for arthritis research work
Scientists in Aberdeen have been awarded a grant of £38,000 from medical research charity the Arthritis Research Campaign to investigate the action of a drug used in metabolic bone disease.
The team at the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics at the University of Aberdeen hope to identify the molecular mechanism of the drug, clodronate, which could lead to its use in treating inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis.
"Bisphosphonates are an important class of drugs used in the treatment of metabolic bone diseases such as osteoporosis and Paget's disease," explained lead researcher, senior lecturer Dr Michael Rogers.
"Some bisphosphonates, such as clodronate, also possess anti-inflammatory properties, but despite 30 years of clinical use, the reason for the effects of these drugs are only just becoming clear. We know clodronate 'sticks' to bone and is taken up by bone-destroying cells (osteoclasts). Clodronate stops osteoclasts destroying bone by inactivating them.
"When the drug is placed in lipid capsules (liposomes) it is taken up by inflammatory cells, which are also killed by the drug."
With previous ARC funding the team have shown that clodronate is taken up by osteoclast cells in the body, and is converted into another molecule. Treating similar cells with a synthetic version of this molecule causes the cells to die, hence preventing them from destroying bone.
"We now aim to determine exactly how this molecule kills cells, and whether this could be used to kill the inflammatory cells in arthritic joints," added Dr Rogers.
Aberdeen is a leading centre for ARC-funded research, and is currently in receipt of grants totalling £2m.
