Point-of-care cell therapy manufacturing; it’s not for everyone

The use of cellular therapies to treat cancer, inherited immune deficiencies, hemoglobinopathies and viral infections is growing rapidly. The increased interest in cellular therapies has led to the development of reagents and closed-system automated instruments for the production of these therapies. For cellular therapy clinical trials involving multiple sites some people are advocating a decentralized model of manufacturing where patients are treated with cells produced using automated instruments at each participating center using a single, centrally held Investigational New Drug Application (IND). Many academic centers are purchasing these automated instruments for point-of-care manufacturing and participation in decentralized multiple center clinical trials. However, multiple site manufacturing requires harmonization of product testing and manufacturing in order to interpret the clinical trial results. Decentralized manufacturing is quite challenging since all centers should use the same manufacturing protocol, the same or comparable in-process and lot release assays and the quality programs from each center must work closely together. Consequently, manufacturing cellular therapies using a decentralized model is in many ways more difficult than manufacturing cells in a single centralized facility. Before an academic center decides to establish a point-of-care cell processing laboratory, they should consider all costs associated with such a program. For many academic cell processing centers, point-of-care manufacturing may not be a good investment.

Enzyme Activity of Natural Products on Cytochrome P450

Drug-metabolizing enzymes, particularly the cytochrome P450 (CYP450) monooxygenases, play a pivotal role in pharmacokinetics. CYP450 enzymes can be affected by various xenobiotic substrates, which will eventually be responsible for most metabolism-based herb–herb or herb–drug interactions, usually involving competition with another drug for the same enzyme binding site. Compounds from herbal or natural products are involved in many scenarios in the context of such interactions. These interactions are decisive both in drug discovery regarding the synergistic effects, and drug application regarding unwanted side effects. Herein, this review was conducted as a comprehensive compilation of the effects of herbal ingredients on CYP450 enzymes. Nearly 500 publications reporting botanicals’ effects on CYP450s were collected and analyzed. The countries focusing on this topic were summarized, the identified herbal ingredients affecting enzyme activity of CYP450s, as well as methods identifying the inhibitory/inducing effects were reviewed. Inhibitory effects of botanicals on CYP450 enzymes may contribute to synergistic effects, such as herbal formulae/prescriptions, or lead to therapeutic failure, or even increase concentrations of conventional medicines causing serious adverse events. Conducting this review may help in metabolism-based drug combination discovery, and in the evaluation of the safety profile of natural products used therapeutically.

Maximizing Regulatory Review Efficiency: The Evolution of the FDA OCE RTOR Pilot

To promote the efficient review of oncology drug applications, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Oncology Center of Excellence (OCE) launched the Real-Time Oncology Review (RTOR) pilot program in 2018. RTOR allows FDA to review individual sections of eCTD modules of a drug application for oncology drugs in contrast to requiring the applicant to submit complete modules or the complete application before review is initiated. Initially, the program accepted only supplemental applications with simple study designs and easily interpretable endpoints, but the scope has since been expanded to include applications for New Molecular Entities (NME), and other applications with more complex features. Though many applicants experience faster approvals under RTOR, it is difficult to isolate the effect of the RTOR program on review timelines as its contribution is masked by other expedited programs like priority review and breakthrough therapy designation (BTD). This article discusses the expanded scope of RTOR, its interplay with other OCE initiatives to modernize regulatory review, summarizes Genentech’s experiences in planning RTOR submissions from February 2019 to July 2021, and provides considerations for the future of the program.

Behavioral Effects of Buspirone in Juvenile Zebrafish of Two Different Genetic Backgrounds

Anxiety continues to represent a major unmet medical need. Despite the availability of numerous anxiolytic drugs, a large proportion of patients do not respond well to current pharmacotherapy, or their response diminishes with chronic drug application. To discover novel compounds and to investigate the mode of action of anxiolytic drugs, animal models have been proposed. The zebrafish is a novel animal model in this research. It is particularly appropriate, as it has evolutionarily conserved features, and drug administration can be employed in a non-invasive manner by immersing the fish into the drug solution. The first step in the analysis of anxiolytic drugs with zebrafish is to test reference compounds. Here, we investigate the effects of buspirone hydrochloride, an anxiolytic drug often employed in the human clinic. We utilize two genetically distinct populations of zebrafish, ABSK, derived from the quasi-inbred AB strain, and WT, a genetically heterogeneous wild-type population. We placed juvenile (10–13-day, post-fertilization, old) zebrafish singly in petri dishes containing one of four buspirone concentrations (0 mg/L control, 5 mg/L, 20 mg/L or 80 mg/L) for 1 h, with each fish receiving a single exposure to one concentration, a between subject experimental design. Subsequently, we recorded the behavior of the zebrafish for 30 min using video-tracking. Buspirone decreased distance moved, number of immobility episodes and thigmotaxis, and it increased immobility duration and turn angle in a quasi-linear dose dependent but genotype independent manner. Although it is unclear whether these changes represent anxiolysis in zebrafish, the results demonstrate that behavioral analysis of juvenile zebrafish may be a sensitive and simple way to quantify the effects of human anxiolytic drugs.

A comprehensive synopsis on cognizance of Regulatory Affairs in different sectors of Pharmacy

A pharmaceutical drug regulatory Affairs is mainly involved in registration process parameters of different pharmaceutical products and new drug application. Regulatory affairs (RA) professionals play vital roles in a pharmaceutical field as, it is related to healthcare products. It provides strategic, operational direction and support for working within regulations to expedite the development of pharmaceutical, biological and medical devices. Also, it is principally concern with safety and efficacy, low risk/high benefit and quality assessment of healthcare drug products throughout the world. Regulatory system of each and every country has different regulatory agencies which govern certification and good manufacturing practices. Regulatory Affairs also has a very specific importance within the formulation and marketing of drug product in pharmaceutical industries. Current abstract reports for the first time and emphasizes on studies concerning awareness and knowledge testing in regulatory affair field by the various pharma professionals. This is completely certified online survey of quiz questionnaire based on important concepts in RA and circulated via google form to different social medias to more than 1000 pharma professionals (Academics, Students, Industrials area). The systematic analysis of received responses reveals awareness and knowledge of the participants about RA in selected pharma professionals. It shows that, participants form industrial area having more knowledge than academics and students. This survey comes out with conclusion that, there is more need to raise RA information sources by the inclusion of this subject in syllabus for academics via various courses to fulfill more RA professional demands in future.

Mimicking the Biology of Engineered Protein and mRNA Nanoparticle Delivery Using a Versatile Microfluidic Platform

To investigate the delivery of next-generation macromolecular drugs, such as engineered proteins and mRNA-containing nanoparticles, there is an increasing push towards the use of physiologically relevant disease models that incorporate human cells and do not face ethical dilemmas associated with animal use. Here, we illustrate the versatility and ease of use of a microfluidic platform for studying drug delivery using high-resolution microscopy in 3D. Using this microfluidic platform, we successfully demonstrate the specific targeting of carbonic anhydrase IX (CAIX) on cells overexpressing the protein in a tumor-mimicking chip system using affibodies, with CAIX-negative cells and non-binding affibodies as controls. Furthermore, we demonstrate this system’s feasibility for testing mRNA-containing biomaterials designed to regenerate bone defects. To this end, peptide- and lipid-based mRNA formulations were successfully mixed with colloidal gelatin in microfluidic devices, while translational activity was studied by the expression of a green fluorescent protein. This microfluidic platform enables the testing of mRNA delivery from colloidal biomaterials of relatively high densities, which represents a first important step towards a bone-on-a-chip platform. Collectively, by illustrating the ease of adaptation of our microfluidic platform towards use in distinct applications, we show that our microfluidic chip represents a powerful and flexible way to investigate drug delivery in 3D disease-mimicking culture systems that recapitulate key parameters associated with in vivo drug application.

Liver drug damage: possibilities of polyionic succinate-methioninic complex during the pandemic of new coronavirus infection (COVID-19)

Medicinal liver damage is an important problem not only in the framework of hepatology and gastroenterology, but also for internal medicine in general, which is due to the difficulties of correct and timely diagnosis of this pathology. In the first part of the review, the main mechanisms of liver tissue damage and clinical and formological manifestations of drug-induced liver damage are considered.The pandemic of the new coronavirus infection (COVID-19), spread by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, has become a challenge to health systems around the world. The global clinical experience gained over the past year in the management of patients with a new coronavirus infection makes it possible to highlight a number of relevant clinical aspects, one of which is drug-induced liver damage associated with the treatment of COVID-19. In the second part of the review, the possible mechanisms of influence of COVID-19 on the hepatobiliary system are considered, which include viral cytotoxicity, a secondary effect of immune dysregulation; hypoxia as a result of respiratory failure and subsequent ischemic liver damage; reactivation of already existing liver pathology and drug damage to the liver. It has been established that a large number of drugs used to treat COVID-19 - antiviral agents, antibacterials, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, steroids and others - have hepatoxic effects and can cause liver damage. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, for patients with a new coronavirus infection and drug-induced liver damage, a rational, pathogenetically justified choice of a hepatoprotective drug is of particular importance. In the final part of the review, the possibilities of the polyionic succinate-methionine complex in the treatment of drug-induced liver damage are considered and a clinical example of the drug application in a patient with drug-induced liver damage during treatment with COVID-19 is given.