Endocrine Abstracts

Just before the turning of the 20th century a detailed series of connected events led to the understanding of the physiology, pathophysiology, chemical synthesis, cellular and molecular biology, and pharmacological use of parathyroid hormone (PTH) in the next 120 years. Thanks to scientists like Fuller Albright, Gerald D. Aurbach, John T. Potts, Karen K. Winer, Thomas J. Gardella, and many others, huge progress has been made over the decades through biotechnological advances to increase the medical knowledge regarding PTH. From 2002 the revolutionary pharmacological application of periodic administration of the PTH analog, teriparatide, in the treatment of osteoporosis opened to the development of PTH peptides as drugs to be used in bone and mineral disorders. After this success story a synthetic peptide of human PTH-related protein, abaloparatide, was approved for the treatment of osteoporosis. In 1994, before the development of teriparatide for osteoporosis, the first systematic investigation into synthetic human PTH 1-34 (later indicated as teriparatide) replacement therapy in hypoparathyroidism was launched. Only in 2015 human intact PTH was approved as the first hormone replacement therapy for treating hypoparathyroidism. The challenges ahead for medicinal chemists are to design compounds that affect the PTH receptor in a tissue selective manner. Such developments seem predictable, based on new advances in parathyroid research. “The saga of PTH will continue in the biotechnology of its analogs and the interest of pharmaceutical firms in this field’s potential.”