Teriparatide (Forsteo) Treatment in Postmenopausal Women: Mechanism of Action
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2015-08-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Previously the approach to treatment of osteoporosis has been to use medications which
prevent excessive resorption of bone. More recently medications that build up new bone, i.e.
anabolic treatments, have been, and are being, developed. The investigators would like to
develop a strategy for evaluating the effectiveness of anabolic therapies by studying a
currently available therapy (teriparatide). This strategy could then be used to assess new
anabolic treatments as they are developed for use in humans.
The aims of this study are 1) to fully describe the changes in bone turnover in response to
teriparatide by biochemical marker type and by time; 2) to fully describe the changes in bone
mineral density (BMD) in response to teriparatide by site, bone compartment and time.
If this study is able to identify an early response to treatment, then this will help speed
up drug development in this area, by allowing the identification of promising new anabolic
drugs and enabling us to understand their mechanism of action. This will benefit the
investigators patients as the investigators will have a better understanding of how these
drugs work.