Pharmacotherapy of Bone Loss in Postmenopausal Women: Focus on Denosumab

ABSTRACT: Denosumab is a human monoclonal antibody against RANKL. This antibody decreases bone turnover markers and increases bone mineral density (BMD) in postmenopausal women. In phase 3 studies including more than 1100 women, denosumab achieved greater increases in lumbar spine, total hip, distal...

Full description

Autores:
Román González, Alejandro
Ackerman, Kathryn E.
Tipo de recurso:
Review article
Fecha de publicación:
2009
Institución:
Universidad de Antioquia
Repositorio:
Repositorio UdeA
Idioma:
eng
OAI Identifier:
oai:bibliotecadigital.udea.edu.co:10495/32170
Acceso en línea:
https://hdl.handle.net/10495/32170
Palabra clave:
Osteoporosis
Ligando RANK
RANK Ligand
Denosumab
Rights
openAccess
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/co/
Description
Summary:ABSTRACT: Denosumab is a human monoclonal antibody against RANKL. This antibody decreases bone turnover markers and increases bone mineral density (BMD) in postmenopausal women. In phase 3 studies including more than 1100 women, denosumab achieved greater increases in lumbar spine, total hip, distal 1/3 radius, and total BMD than alendronate 70 mg weekly. Recent data suggest that denosumab also decreases vertebral and non-vertebral fractures. This drug seems to be safe, although the most frequent side effects are arthralgia, back pain, and nasopharyngitis. No increased incidence of neoplasia has been found compared to placebo or alendronate. However, infections requiring inpatient treatment were more frequent in study groups treated with denosumab. These were common community acquired infections and were treated with standard antibiotics. No opportunistic infections were reported. Denosumab is a very promising new drug for the treatment of osteopenia and osteoporosis, and hopefully more long-term safety information and further fracture data will support its commercial use in the near future.