Grant: Project Grant

Misuse and addiction to natural and synthetic opioids is a serious public health crisis nationwide that has become an epidemic. In only the first three months of 2020, 1,018 opioid-related deaths were recorded in Canada. Prolonged opioid use has been demonstrated to induce osteoporotic-like bone loss and increase the risk of bone fracture in chronic users. Comorbidities such as osteopenia and osteoporosis may go clinically undiagnosed in drug users. Limited data exist related to the impact of opioid abuse on human cortical bone remodeling from modern forensic autopsy cases and in pre-clinical animal models. Here, bone microarchitecture will be evaluated in two corresponding sequential studies using a: 1) large sample of decedent humans with well-documented opioid use history (n=200), and 2) rabbit model system to further decipher the effects of chronic opioid use on bone remodeling without confounding physiological factors. The use of high-resolution 3D imaging will enable a scale of analysis that allows for two related research aims to be addressed to: 1) identify pathological changes to cortical bone microstructure with prolonged opioid use, and 2) quantify and model morphometric differences in cortical pore systems and bone's cellular organization (e.g., osteocyte lacunar parameters) between control and drug treatment groups in an animal model system. This work represents an interdisciplinary effort that will work toward both the improvement of forensic skeletal identification efforts and identifying suitable time frames for pharmaceutical intervention for the treatment of opioid-induced osteoporotic-like bone loss.