Authors: Munoz MA, Fletcher EK, Skinner OP, Jurczyluk J, Kristianto E, Hodson MP, Sun S, Ebetino FH, Croucher DR, Hansbro PM, Center JR, Rogers MJ.
eLife 10, 2021
Bisphosphonates drugs are commonly used for the treatment of bone diseases. However, the authors of this study showed that the administration of nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates can also inhibit the mevalonate pathway in tissue-resident macrophages, preventing protein prenylation, as well as enhancing the immune response to bacterial endotoxin. The Corning Cell Counter was used to assess cell viability and total cell numbers in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and peritoneal lavage (PL) samples from mice. Overall, this study suggest that bisphosphonates not only prevent bone loss, but also may boost immune responses to infection in the lung.
