AI, bench to bedside research
“Every field is moving towards the use of AI,” Bellido noted, and the September 11 plenary symposium entitled, “Artificial Intelligence and Precision Medicine in Musculoskeletal Health,” will shed light on how AI is being used to study bone health.
The session “will give us a glimpse of the future,” said Hofbauer.
Session topics include principles of applications to research and clinical care in bone and mineral research; how AI can help detect rare diseases; and combining genomics with medical data using AI in precision medicine for drug discovery.
“The Bench to Bedside presentation on ‘Beta Blockers and Bone’ is a great example of translational research, while the Basic Symposium on ‘Bones, Guts and Brains’ provides inspiring and thought-provoking insights into novel physiology and tempting teleology,” Hofbauer explained.
“Another fascinating Cutting Edge symposium,” he added, “is on ‘Inspiring Mechanistic Bone Stories from Around the Animal Kingdom,’ a must-see for those employing preclinical animal models.”
For more insight into early research and a research pioneer, attendees can listen to Selma Masri, PhD, from the University of California, Irvine, who will deliver the Gerald D. Aurbach Lecture entitled, “The Scientific Legacy of Paolo Sassone-Corsi: A Tour Through the Fields of Transcriptional Regulation, Epigenetics, Metabolism and Circadian Rhythms.”
Masri’s lab is dissecting how genetic disruption of the circadian clock in mouse models affects cancer, and she will discuss the work and legacy of the late Sassone-Corsi, as well as the future of the field.
Rare disease, fragility fractures
The ASBMR meeting will also feature the latest research into rare diseases and fragility fractures.
Rare diseases are often about “more bone or less bone,” said Bellido. “Understanding the mechanisms of these rare diseases can give us very important clues of treating the more common diseases.”
A fragility fracture is a diagnosis of osteoporosis, but most are not treated, she continued. “This is equivalent to having, for example, a heart attack and leaving the hospital after the incident was resolved and not treating it.”
“We’re trying to address this gap,” she said, and a symposium on September 14 will present some of the latest knowledge.
During the “Long-term Management of Fragility Fracture” symposium, speakers will discuss reducing mortality with antiosteoporotic treatment, new scenarios to prevent postfracture frailty, as well as fracture and postfracture management – surgeon and nursing perspectives.
COVID-19, nutrition, microbiome, and top 5 clinical abstracts
In addition to plenary sessions and symposiums, there are many oral abstracts and posters on important studies in the field of bone health, including, for example, a topical study of vitamin D and COVID-19.
There are also many abstracts on nutrition, the microbiome, and treating bone loss, said Bellido.
“We have a huge increase in the number of abstracts submitted from South America and Australia compared to previous years,” she noted, “and a 10% increase (from 50% to 61%) in the number of abstracts submitted by young investigators, which is crucial.”
Close to 1000 abstracts (988) were submitted, two thirds of which were clinical.
The top 5 clinical abstracts reflect important current issues in the field, said Hofbauer.
“One major theme is on long-term and sequential therapy efficacy and safety,” he said. And “burosumab is a game-changing new drug, and nutritional aspects are evergreens [perennial favorites], especially in the elderly population.”
The top 5 clinical oral abstracts at the ASBMR 2020 meeting are:
- Dairy supplementation reduces fractures and falls in institutionalized older adults: A cluster-randomized placebo-controlled trial (abstract 1022).
- Treatment with zoledronate subsequent to denosumab in osteoporosis: A randomized trial (abstract 1065).
- Efficacy of burosumab in adults with X-linked hypophosphatemia (XLH): A subgroup analysis of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 study (abstract 1044).
- High-dose vitamin D supplementation affects bone density differently in females than males (abstract 1019).
- Bisphosphonate use and risk of atypical femoral fractures: A nationwide Danish analysis with blinded radiographic review (abstract 1061).
This article first appeared on Medscape.com.