Miniature human organs and other tissues are to be grown from NHS patients’ cells in a drive to improve medicine testing and reduce the number of animals used in drug development, The Guardian writes.<\/p>\n
Scientists will use the clumps of tissue to learn how diseases vary between patients, helping them identify which treatments are best for different people based on the particular pathology underlying their condition.<\/p>\n
The move marks a shift away from the traditional use of animals as models for human disease, towards what researchers believe will be more accurate and reliable tests based directly on human tissues.<\/p>\n
Researchers have been growing tiny clumps of human organs, known as organoids, for more than a decade. Tests show that pieces smaller than a millimetre can mirror key features of full-scale organs and tissues, including how they falter with disease and respond to drugs.<\/p>\n
Armed with organoids grown from diseased human tissues, scientists can investigate whether new drug candidates reverse pathological changes in all or a subset of patients, and quickly identify ineffective drugs early in the process.<\/p>\n
While scientists will grow a full range of organoids from beating clumps of heart tissue to electrically active brain cells, Zilbauer’s team is starting with organoids for inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Others will focus on growing tumours to improve cancer treatments, and brain organoids to understand neurological conditions.<\/p>\n
The article states that more than 90% of drugs that clear animal testing go on to fail in human trials, raising questions about the value of the tests. US and European medicines regulators now encourage other approaches if available.<\/p>\n
“We’re not saying there won’t be any animal use in the near or foreseeable future, because there are still certain issues that cannot be tested in these new models, but the reduction is very real,” said Matthias Zilbauer, a clinical professor of paediatric gastroenterology at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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