A Small-molecule Approach to Bone Regenerative Medicine in Dentistry

The resorption of alveolar bone in periodontitis and/or following tooth extraction results in a significant problem in an individual's oral health-related quality of life. Strategies employing growth factor proteins and/or stem cell-based therapy have been successfully used to regenerate alveolar bone augmentation/regeneration; however, cost-effectiveness issues illustrate the need for developing alternative strategies. One promising approach is the development of conventional chemical and biological therapeutics to strongly stimulate endogenous cells to regenerate. Small-molecule compounds can have a variety of biological functions, serving as cell signaling molecules, as tools in molecular biology, and as drugs in medicine. Therefore, the discovery of natural and novel small-molecule synthetic regulators of differentiation and maturation of osteoblasts and/or osteoclasts would accelerate the development of bone regenerative medicine. Recently, “chemical biology” has started to play an increasingly important role in both drug discovery and elucidating the mechanism of biological phenomena. This review first addresses the current needs and strategies for alveolar bone regeneration, followed by the potential small molecules associated with bone regeneration, with a concluding section on chemical biology-based high throughput screening approaches for identifying small molecules targeting osteoblast/osteoclast differentiation.