Journal article

Mathematical modeling of postmenopausal osteoporosis and its treatment by the anti-catabolic drug denosumab

S Schneiner, P Pivonka, D Smith, C Dunstan, C Hellmich

International Journal for Numerical Methods in Biomedical Engineering | wiley | Published : 2014

Abstract

Denosumab, a fully human monoclonal antibody, has been approved for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis. The therapeutic effect of denosumab rests on its ability to inhibit osteoclast differentiation. Here, we present a computational approach on the basis of coupling a pharmacokinetics model of denosumab with a pharmacodynamics model for quantifying the effect of denosumab on bone remodeling. The pharmacodynamics model comprises an integrated systems biology-continuum micromechanics approach, including a bone cell population model, considering the governing biochemical factors of bone remodeling (including the action of denosumab), and a multiscale micromechanics-based bone mechanic..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by European Commission


Funding Acknowledgements

Financial support by the Australian Research Council, in the framework of the project Multi-scale modeling of transport through deformable porous materials (project number DP-0988427), by the Australian Academy of Science, in the framework of Scientific Visits to Europe with the COST Action program and by the European Research Council, in the framework of the project Multiscale poro-micromechanics of bone materials, with links to biology and medicine (project number FP7-257023), is gratefully acknowledged.