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Jan. 15, 2021
In 2015, a team led by three Italian scientists sent an experiment to the International Space Station to be performed by ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut, Samantha Cristoforetti,who is Italian. Five years later, the all-woman led team has now published the results in the research journal, Scientific Reports.
Livia Visai, Giuseppina Rea, and Angela Maria Rizzo are the women behind the fundamental work for the Italian Space Agency (ASI) experiment known as the Nanoparticles and Osteoporosis (NATO) project. The results show that a new drug delivery system tested aboard the station has beneficial effects for promoting stem cells to become osteoblasts – the cells responsible for bone formation. Scientists could use this research to develop treatments to combat bone degeneration during long-duration spaceflight or even for treating osteoporosis on Earth.
“Bone is a living tissue that is constantly destroyed and reformed. Cells called osteoclasts destroy bone, while other cells called osteoblasts produce new bone,” says Cristoforetti in the logbook for her 199-day mission, dubbed Futura. “As long as destruction and production are in balance, everything is good, but in weightlessness this balance is disturbed and osteoclasts win. That is also what happens when people suffer of osteoporosis, unfortunately a common problem.”
Image above: The NATO team with their experiment just prior to handover to SpaceX for loading into the Dragon capsule. Pictured from left to right are Alessandro Mariani, Luca Petracchi, Giuseppina Rea, Fabio Creati, Derek Duflo, Livia Visai, Marco Vukich, Barbara Pascucci, Giuseppe Pani and Francesco Cristofaro. Image Credit: NATO Project Team.
Before leaving Earth, the Nanoparticles and Osteoporosis experiment began with some rotations on the ground to induce simulated microgravity-like conditions.
“Space science needs a simulation preparation phase on Earth before performing the experiment [in orbit]. You have to know how your cells behave in microgravity, and you have to set up your hardware,” explains Angela Marie Rizzo, NATO project co-investigator. Both the samples and the hardware were tested on a Random Positioning Machine prior to launch to help the team better understand their system and how it may behave in microgravity. They tested how many cells lived, the number of cells needed for the experiment, and whether the material of the container was compatible with their samples.
With launch day approaching, the NATO team received word that Cristoforetti would be performing their experiment. “We were excited and enthusiastic. We had the opportunity to meet her at the ASI Headquarters in Rome before her Futura mission to present an overview of our experiment,” says Visai. The meeting fostered a collaboration between the ground-based team and the astronaut, the in-orbit scientist for the NATO project.
SpaceX CRS-6 lifts off Pad 40 on April 14, 2015. Image Credit: NASA
When the hardware was ready for space, it was packed into a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that roared off Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on April 14, 2015, for the company’s sixth commercial resupply services (SpaceX CRS-6) mission for NASA. “That was an absolutely memorable and unforgettable day, like all of our hard work and dreams became real,” says Visai.
Cristoforetti began the NATO experiment by loading the samples into the space station’s Kubik, an incubator where the stem cells were placed for the duration of the study. Upon installation, the science was underway to see if this nanoparticle-based system could promote the stem cells to become bone forming cells.
Animation above: ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti works with nanoparticle samples in the ESA Kubik facility aboard the space station. Image Credit: NASA.
The system being tested had three main components: the delivery method (nanoparticles), the biological integrator (hydroxyapatite), and the component that acts on the bone cells (strontium).
“Nanocarriers as a drug delivery system are a really promising avenue for disease treatment,” says Giuseppina Rea, a co-investigator on the NATO team. “This potential is mainly due to specific properties the materials acquire when fabricated at the nanoscale.” A nanometer measures about 1/100,000th the width of a human hair. The novel synthesized nanoparticles could induce changes to the targeted bone cells in unique ways that are not feasible when using matter at larger scale.
To achieve integration of the nanoparticle into the bone, the NATO team used hydroxyapatite, a naturally occurring mineral compound. This hydroxyapatite compound was enriched with strontium, a metal ion that can have positive effects on bone health.
Previous studies show that strontium levels are elevated in newborns, but this level declines with age. Strontium replenishment in adults has previously been shown to help promote an increase in bone formation and limit bone degradation. The NATO team believes this compound makes for an intriguing option for a potential countermeasure, both for spaceflight and also for people on Earth. “Strontium nanoparticles are a novel and effective non-biological treatment for bone injuries and can be used as powerful therapeutics for bone regeneration,” says Visai. The NATO team is interested in further exploring strontium nanoparticles, either in food supplements or in implants for broken bones.
Animation above: NATO team members Giuseppe Pani, Fabio Creati, Barbara Pascucci, Livia Visai, Giuseppina Rea, and Francesco Cristofaro, celebrate their work at the laminar flow bench and assemble their hardware prior to flight. Image Credit: NATO Project Team.
Results from this study add to the pool of knowledge gained from science conducted aboard the International Space Station, which has been continuously inhabited for more than 20 years. “[The space station] was very important 20 years ago, and it is more important now,” explains Visai. “We have to build experiments to understand what happens to our body when we stay in space.”
The NATO project was sponsored by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in cooperation with ESA and NASA. The project was developed in partnership between the University of Pavia, the University of Milan, the National Council of Research in Rome (Institute of Crystallography), and Kayser Italia Srl as the payload developer.
Related links:
Nanoparticles and Osteoporosis (NATO): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1559
Scientific Reports: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-53481-y
Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/overview.html
International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Images (mentioned), Animations (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Michael Johnson/JSC/International Space Station Program Research Office/Jessica Hellein.
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