Inside innovative materials for osteosarcoma through solid-state NMR

Bone cancer and bone metastases are usually associated with severe bone pain and osteolysis, the latter being also accompanied by increased bone fragility and susceptibility to fracture. Nowadays, chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy represent the main treatments able to block the metastases progression. However, these treatments inhibit cell division without distinction between healthy and cancer cells, thus inducing many side effects in patients. Hence the need for developing innovative treatments able to inhibit metastases progression and, at the same time, to promote the formation of new tissue. In this contribution we present innovative organic-inorganic hybrid injectable materials designed to have the dual function of inhibiting cancer cells proliferation and inducing new bone tissue formation/mineralization [1, 2]. In particular we will show the results of a multinuclear Solid State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance investigation [3, 4] that allowed the phase behaviour and the structural features of the hybrid materials, before and after mineralization, to be characterized in detail. This research was funded by the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research (MUR), grant PRIN 'ACTION' 2017SZ5WZB.