UK Biobank<\/a> , one of the world’s biggest and most comprehensive collections of biological samples.<\/p>\nA\/Prof. Kemp said by analysing genetic and bone density data from half a million people participating in the UK Biobank, the team was able to pinpoint exactly which cells drive skeletal disease.<\/p>\n
“These include cells known to regulate bone formation and bone loss, as well as blood vessel cells that, until now, have had underappreciated roles in bone health,” A\/Prof. Kemp said.<\/p>\n
Resource to accelerate the development of new therapies<\/p>\n
Prof. Croucher said the research uncovered new therapeutic opportunities against not only bone disease, but also cancer.<\/p>\n
“Bone is the main hiding place for dormant cancer cells and a common site of relapse, so identifying the cells and genes that drive bone turnover also opens new opportunities to prevent cancer metastasis,” he said.<\/p>\n
The team is now further investigating the roles of newly discovered bone-regulating cells and genes in the hope of developing new medicines against these targets. Its data has been made accessible to medical researchers worldwide through an open access platform.<\/p>\n
“We hope that sharing this knowledge can speed up development of new therapies that prevent diseases like osteoporosis and reverse the damage caused by them,” A\/Prof. Kemp said.<\/p>\n
New hope for patients living with weakened bones<\/p>\n
For patients, the research offers hope for how the disease might be managed.<\/p>\n
Sydney woman Andrea Ulbrick was diagnosed with severe osteoporosis at the age of 44.<\/p>\n
“When I was diagnosed aged 44, my GP said I had the bones of a 70-year-old. It was shocking and very distressing,” says Ms Ulbrick.<\/p>\n
“To think that this research could lead to the development of new treatments for osteoporosis is beyond my wildest dreams.”<\/p>\n
The research was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust Strategic Award, Mrs Janice Gibson & the Ernest Heine Family Foundation, Mater Foundation, the Lions Medical Research Foundation, the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research and Relation Therapeutics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The most detailed map of cells and genes that regulate bone health The team used state-of-the-art single-cell RNA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63,128],"class_list":["post-798814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}