‘Organ on a chip’: The new lab setup scientists are using instead of animals to test new drugs
The Hindu
Experts expect this state-of-the-art technology to be used as drug test-beds in India within a few years to a decade.
The recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act brought cheer to animal rights activists and drug developers alike. By approving the Act, the US government green-lit computer-based and experimental alternatives to animals to test new drugs.
The move is expected to boost the research and development of organ chips – small devices containing human cells that are used to mimic the environment in human organs, including blood flow and breathing movements, serving as synthetic environments in which to test new drugs.
For more than a decade, scientists, pharmaceutical companies, and animal activists have been pushing regulators to include synthetic setups that mimic human diseases, in addition to using animals, as drug testbeds, with arguments rooted in science, commerce, and ethics.
Lab to market
Bringing a new drug into the market is a long, expensive, and challenging process ridden with failure. First, researchers identify chemical compounds (including biological molecules) that can be used to treat a condition using modelling, among other techniques. Then, they pick a shortlist of options that perform well and test them on cells grown on plastic dishes in the lab – or on animals that can mimic the disease in certain conditions.
At this stage, called the preclinical trial, scientists determine whether these drugs are toxic and if they can efficaciously treat the mimicked condition. Animals used here include mice, rats, hamsters, and guinea pigs, depending on the drug being tested. Researchers also use pigs when testing implant devices like stents.
Before the new Act, researchers had to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of a drug in an animal model of the disease before moving to human clinical trials.