Undergraduate Research Accomplishments Accomplishments: OUR Grantee: Determining the Therapeutic Effects of VitB on Type II Diabetic Bone

For this project, together with his peers and mentor Professor Lamya Karim at the Bone Biomechanics Lab at UMass Dartmouth, Christian Ray aimed to test a drug that can reverse or reduce the harmful effects of AGEs in bone. The team decided to utilize the properties of Vitamin B6 (also known as pyridoxamine hydrochloride) due to its ability to counteract AGE formation in bone tissue. It is also an ideal treatment due to its natural presence in foods and food supplements, meaning that it is less likely to have harmful side effects unlike previously tested AGE inhibitors. Because of the lack of in-depth mechanical research of vitamin B6 as a treatment for bone deterioration, it was necessary to perform controlled studies on bone treated with varying doses of vitamin B6 in vitro. This provided useful information to improve treatment for T2D patients. Overall, there is still insufficient research and information regarding the processes and effects of AGEs on bone. The goal of this still on-going study, in which Ray participated through a Summer 2022 OUR grant, has been to determine the extent of VitB6 effectiveness as an AGE inhibitor as well as to find any unexpected effects due to the compound.