Researchers from the Medical University of Gdansk (GUMed) have been granted a patent for an invention “A pharmaceutical composition for implantation of bone tissue, a method of obtaining it and an application to produce an implant for use in the treatment of bone tissue”. It will allow bone infections to be treated more effectively.

The subject of the invention by Prof Magdalena Prokopowicz and Dr Adrian Szewczyk from the Department of Physical Chemistry, GUMed, is ‘a new composition of a pharmaceutical mixture and a method of its production based on mesoporous silica material with adsorbed therapeutic substance and gel-derived powder with mineralisation potential to obtain solid forms of the drug for potential treatment and regeneration of bone tissue’.

The researchers point out that skeletal diseases such as osteoporosis, osteomyelitis and bone tumours represent a serious, but hitherto unnoticed, problem in the healthcare system. In 2000, approximately 9 million osteoporotic fractures were reported, and the incidence of osteomyelitis has tripled over the past 40 years.

Necrotic changes within the bone tissue resulting from a progressive bacterial infection are only observable on X-ray when 50-75% of the bone matrix has been destroyed. In clinical practice, chronic bone and bone marrow inflammation caused by bacterial infection or primary bone cancer is treated by performing surgery with the simultaneous implementation of antibiotic and/or chemotherapy.

Therefore, attention is increasingly focused on modern therapy involving the delivery of the therapeutic substance directly to the bone tissue using, for example, implanted drug carriers. The solution of the Gdansk scientists is a drug in a bifunctional form with antimicrobial activity and supporting bone tissue regeneration.

Adrian Andrzejewski