TREATMENT OF SKELETAL DISEASES WITH A NATURALLY DERIVED ANTIOXIDANT AND BISPHOSPHONATE EMBEDDED NANOPARTICLES

Skeletal disorders are degenerative diseases causing progressive disability and are becoming more and more prevalent in our society. Bone is a special tissue able to support load and stress and is continuously renewed thanks to bone turnover mediated by the well coordinated activity of osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Many metabolic bone diseases are characterized by an imbalance of the activity of bone cells and bone turnover that could be estimated through the evaluation of laboratory data analysis. In addition to metabolic disorders, bone tissue can be impairs by genetic diseases such as osteogenesis imperfect. In addition, Osteoarthritis (OA), the most prevalent musculoskeletal pathology, is predominantly characterized by the progressive degradation of articular cartilage due to an imbalance between anabolic and catabolic processes. Age-related changes that occur in articular are thought to represent a major risk factor for OA development. Therefore, skeletal diseases have been associated to defective differentiation pathways of progenitor stem cells (PSCs) to produce osteoblasts or chondrocytes. RUNX2 as well as SOX9 are transcription factors 202 responsible of commitment of PSCs in osteoblasts and chondrocytes respectively. In order to evaluate the possibility to affect and improve osteoblasts or chondrocytes commitment we assayed a naturally derived antioxidant and a bisphosphonate (clodronate) embedded nanoparticles in vivo (murine model) and in vitro (cell line) respectively. Antioxidant molecule was embedded into PLGA (poly lactic-co-glycolic acid) with the emulsion evaporation method. Bisphosphonate nanoparticles were prepared using chitosan and hyaluronic acid applying the ionotropic gelation method.