The scientists have uncovered a crucial interaction between an enzyme and osteoclasts, cells in the body that remove bone in a natural cycle of bone growth and breakdown. The connection between the enzyme, vacuolar proton adenosine triphophatase or V-ATPase, and the osteoclasts may provide a novel target for future medications to block the bone erosion associated with osteoporosis and the deadly metastatic bone diseases that stem from breast and prostate cancers. It could take five years or more to develop pharmaceuticals targeting the enzyme-osteoclast connection, he said. More than 10 million people, mainly women, suffer from the disease, and that number is expected to grow. Another 18 million Americans have low bone mass, placing them at increased risk for the disease.
Osteoclasts play an important role in the body in the routine process of bone removal and growth.
But in bone diseases including osteoporosis, the osteoclasts are overly active and out of balance with their bone-building counterparts, osteoblasts. As a result, bones begin to deteriorate. That deterioration also causes bones to become vulnerable to invasion by metastasizing breast and prostate cancer cells. Once they invade bones, these cancer cells can't be treated effectively by conventional cancer therapies. When osteoclasts encounter bone, they attach themselves to it, forming a connection similar to a suction cup.