Efficacy and safety of anti-sclerostin antibodies in the treatment of osteoporosis: A meta-analysis and systematic review

Osteoporosis is a chronic disease with an increasing prevalence. Anti-sclerostin antibodies are being investigated for the treatment of osteoporosis. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of antis-sclerostin antibodies compared to placebo and conventional therapies (alendronate and teriparatide) in the treatment of osteoporosis. Randomized controlled trials were searched from PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trails (CENTRAL) from their inception up to June 2021 by using Medical Subject Headings terms “anti-sclerostin antibody”, “romosozumab”, “blosozumab”, “AMG 785″, “LY2541546”, and “osteoporosis”. Two investigators independently screened eligible studies, assessed the risk of bias and extracted the data from each study. The I2 index was used to assess heterogeneity. Meta-analysis was conducted using the Review Manager Software (RevMan, Version 5.4). The GRADE approach was used to rate the quality of evidence for all the pooled outcomes. 8 RCTs with 12,416 patients met the inclusion criteria. Anti-sclerostin antibodies significantly increased lumbar spine, total hip and femoral neck bone mineral density compared to placebo, alendronate and teriparatide at both 6 and 12 mo. Adverse events were comparable between anti-sclerostin antibodies and other treatments, except for the incidence of injection-site reactions that was higher in the anti-sclerostin antibody groups. Anti-sclerostin antibodies represent a valid theurapeutic option in the treatment of osteoporosis. Further studies with longer duration and follow-up are needed to confirm the results of this meta-analysis.