BHUBANESWAR: In a significant study, scientists at the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS), Bhubaneswar have discovered that critical-sized bone defects can be successfully treated with regeneration of bones by utilising extracellular vesicles found in body fluids.
The researchers have got promising results during initial trials on mice models. Their discovery offers targeted treatment strategies and improved efficacy paving the way for more effective and less invasive therapies for patients with critical bone defects.
The bone defects arise due to various health conditions including surgery for osteosarcoma, which is a rare and aggressive bone cancer. In case of metastatic osteosarcoma, the tumour site is surgically removed resulting in a large cavity in the bone while in major bone fractures, part of the bone is completely or partially broken, causing pain and loss of functionality.
So far, treatment of bone fractures has been a clinical challenge for people with critical-sized defects. Although bone has an inherent potential to regenerate itself over time, when an injury exceeds a critical limit, bones cannot get healed without surgical and therapeutic interventions.
Principal investigator and ILS scientist Manomi Dash said critical bone defects are now being treated with autografts, allografts, and xenografts apart from the advanced stem cell-based bone tissue engineering despite limitations like immunological rejection, transplant failure, limited sources of donors, and disease transmission.
“We used bone cell-derived small extracellular vesicles, which were integrated on a novel bio-resorbable implant material to enhance regeneration. These naturally secreted nano-vesicles helped deliver drugs and diagnostics to specific cells, tissues and organs,” she said.
The scientist said in a rat model with critical-sized calvarial defects, the implantation of extracellular vesicles-loaded scaffolds stimulated significant bone regeneration after eight weeks.
Another scientist Amaresh Panda said the extracellular vesicles carried essential micro RNAs that can be transferred to recipient cells and regulate their functioning.
The technology for isolating and applying these extracellular vesicles has been patented by ILS and transferred to a startup Polyorbit Private Limited for commercialisation. BIRAC has funded the project to propel the development and commercialisation of this cutting-edge technology.