Treatment of Osteoporosis Might be Made More Effective by Serotonin

osteoporosisA new research has revealed that the hormone serotonin might just hold the key to new treatments that could reverse osteoporosis-related bone loss.

When a team of investigators at the Columbia University Medical Center offered treatment to mice and rats with an experimental medicine that stopped the gut from synthesizing serotonin, they managed to reverse severe bone loss and effectively cured osteoporosis in the animals.

The latest finding, as reported by researchers, seems to hold the promise of latest and much-better-than-before treatments for building of new bones.

Most existing treatment methods and medicines for osteoporosis work by blocking bone loss and making existing bones stronger. There, however, is one drug called Forteo, which does end up building new bones, but requires everyday injections and is limited to a mere two years of use.

"The notion of a different approach to producing new bone is very, very exciting", said National Osteoporosis Foundation past President Ethel S. Siris, MD.

Details of the findings have been published in the February 07 issue of journal Nature Medicine.