# BCCMA: Foundational Research to Act Upon and Resist Conditions Unfavorable to Bone (FRACTURE CURB): A stitch in time saves nine!

> **NIH VA I01** · VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION · 2023 · —

## Abstract

Overall Research Strategy: To ensure aging Veterans remain active and mobile with as little musculoskeletal
pain as possible, new approaches to the prevention of osteoporosis and promotion of timely bone regeneration
following a fracture are necessary. This collaborative research study brings together a group of VA investigators
with diverse perspectives, insights, models, and techniques, to synergistically attack a major clinical problem
that leads to high morbidity and mortality among Veterans, a bone fracture. The overall research strategy of each
integrated project is to use pre-clinical models of a disease that either weakens bone or delays bone repair, to
investigate novel ways to utilize or enhance the ability of parathyroid hormone (PTH) to promote bone formation,
and to assess disease and treatment effects on bone in a unified, stringent manner. Already under-diagnosed
and under-treated, osteoporosis is likely to increase the number of fragility fractures being treated at VA hospitals
without novel tools for early detection and novel treatment strategies that circumvent the rare but devastating
side effects of current therapies that inhibit bone loss. Addressing this unmet clinical need, the overall aims are
to identify therapeutic strategies to improve bone health among Veterans and to enhance the bone anabolism of
PTH signaling. The collaboration will address this overarching hypothesis: health problems disproportionately
affecting Veterans activate signaling pathways that increase bone resorption, suppress bone formation, or
impede the transition of cartilage to bone in a fracture callus such that improvements in the clinical management
of osteoporosis lie in understanding how these health problems hurt bone health.
Project Research Strategy: The traditional clinical standard of care for fracture prevention, is to screen for
osteoporosis late in the course of the disease, after bone has been denuded and fracture is imminent, before
resorting to anti-osteoporotic pharmacotherapies. Such therapies however, are inefficient at regenerating lost
bone, and bone quality, an important aspect of load bearing strength, often remains deficient. Thus, the clinical
standard of care is frequently inadequate and many patients ultimately go on to sustain a fracture, irrespective
of therapy. Compounding the problem, anti-resorptives (especially bisphosphonates) have significant immediate,
as well as rare, but serious long-term side-effects, making for poor compliance and refusal to initiate therapy.
Given this array of issues associated with late drug intervention, this project will investigate whether “a stich in
time, saves nine”, by examining if early prophylaxis using anti-catabolic drugs, anabolic drugs and a non-
pharmacological nutritional supplement, to prevent bone loss from occurring early in the etiology of the disease,
is more effective at preventing bone fracture than late therapy after bone has already been denuded and
regeneration is mo...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10483595
- **Project number:** 1I01BX005852-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION
- **Principal Investigator:** Mervyn Neale Weitzmann
- **Activity code:** I01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-10-01 → 2026-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10483595

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10483595, BCCMA: Foundational Research to Act Upon and Resist Conditions Unfavorable to Bone (FRACTURE CURB): A stitch in time saves nine! (1I01BX005852-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10483595. Licensed CC0.

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