Multi-Modal Therapeutic Action of Gallium-Containing Bioactive Glass Against Osteosarcoma and Bacterial Pathogens

Pereira Lopes de Souza, Lucas, Henrique Lopes, Joao, Felipe Moreira Oliveira, Luis, Naz Safdar Raja, Farah, Singh, Archana, Hanaei, Shirin, Green, Darrell, Gardner, Adrian, Stevenson, Jonathan and Alan Martin, Richard (2026) Multi-Modal Therapeutic Action of Gallium-Containing Bioactive Glass Against Osteosarcoma and Bacterial Pathogens. Engineered Regeneration. ISSN 2666-1381 (In Press)

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Abstract

Despite multimodal therapy, bone tumours can lead to high morbidity and poor survival, with recurrent limited success from trials investigating targeted or immunotherapies. Surgery remains essential and is the only option available for refractory disease, skeletal metastases, and some benign bone lesions. However, primary bone tumours, such as osteosarcoma, often recur locally when complete resection is hindered by limited safety margins or proximity to vital structures. A multifunctional biomaterial capable of eradicating residual tumour cells while promoting bone regeneration could significantly improve outcomes of surgical procedures in these clinical settings. Here, we report the anticancer and antibacterial properties of gallium-containing bioactive glasses (Ga-BGs). We show that osteosarcoma cell lines are especially sensitive to gallium and that Ga-BGs can release therapeutic levels of gallium ions that selectively kill osteosarcoma cells. Our mechanistic investigation reveals that gallium promotes a multi-pronged molecular attack on key hallmarks of cancer cells, primarily through disrupting iron metabolism leading to increased oxidative stress, induction of cell death pathways, and suppression of oncogenic and metastatic signalling. Moreover, gallium nitrate and Ga-BGs are shown to present inhibitory effects upon gran-negative bacteria P. aeruginosa. Taken together, our results indicate that Ga-BGs constitute a model biomaterial for the development of multi-functional scaffolds for the treatment of osteosarcoma.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data availability: All available data are included in this article and its supplementary files or are available from the corresponding author upon request. Raw sequencing files are deposited in the NCBI Sequence Read Archive (SRA) and publicly available under accession PRJNA1335238.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	bone tumour,bioactive glass,gallium,cytotoxicity,apoptosis,rna-sequencing,sdg 3 - good health and well-being ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/good_health_and_well_being
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Metabolic Health
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	08 May 2026 15:14
Last Modified:	14 May 2026 15:16
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/102924
DOI:	10.1016/j.engreg.2026.05.001

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