Drug that prevents bone loss could let astronauts make longer journeys in space

• International Space Station astronauts Mike Fincke (left) and Gennady Padalka could spend longer in space if they lost less bone.
• A drug that prevents bone loss could permit astronauts to make long journeys in space, according to results from a study of spinal injury patients.
• The two biggest persistent health problems in space flight are radiation exposure and bone loss, says Jay Shapiro, a bone researcher at the Uniformed Services University in Bethesda, Maryland.
• The drug is normally used to prevent secondary bone tumours developing in cancer patients, and has shown early promise in retarding the effects of the bone-wasting disease osteoporosis.
• The solution will be a combination of clever medicine and clever space craft.
• In the study, eight patients who did not take the drug lost 16-18% of their femur bone mass over a year, while seven patients using the drug lost only 6%.
• "It's very much a first step, but it seems the most reasonable drug to use to allow trips to Mars."
• Shapiro presented the results last week at the annual meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research in Seattle, Washington.
• Jeanne Becker, associate director of the institute, is trying to arrange for an astronaut on the International Space Station to take the drug.
• But she says that, as the space shuttle's schedule is not certain, it may be years before zoledronate gets a zero-gravity test.
• The research could also benefit spinal injury patients, whose limbs fracture easily after bone loss.
• Drugs such as zoledronate could certainly play a key role in long space missions, says Colin McGuckin, a stem-cell scientist at Kingston University, UK, who is working with NASA to develop a way to use cell transplants to limit an astronaut's bone loss.
• "The solution will be a combination of clever medicine and clever spacecraft," he says.