scholarly journals Biologia futura: animal testing in drug development—the past, the present and the future

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-452
Author(s):  
Miklós Sántha
Keyword(s):  
Drug Development ◽  
In Silico ◽  
Experimental Testing ◽  
Animal Experiments ◽  
Animal Testing ◽  
Culture Methods ◽  
Veterinary Research ◽  
Safety Studies ◽  
Ancient Times

AbstractAnimal experiments have served to improve our knowledge on diseases and treatment approaches since ancient times. Today, animal experiments are widely used in medical, biomedical and veterinary research, and are essential means of drug development and preclinical testing, including toxicology and safety studies. Recently, great efforts have been made to replace animal experiments with in vitro organoid culture methods and in silico predictions, in agreement with the 3R strategy to “reduce, refine and replace” animals in experimental testing, as outlined by the European Commission. Here we present a mini-review on the development of animal testing, as well as on alternative in vitro and in silico methods, that may at least partly replace animal experiments in the near future.

scholarly journals The Combination of Cell Cultured Technology and In Silico Model to Inform the Drug Development

Pharmaceutics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 704
Author(s):  
Zhengying Zhou ◽  
Jinwei Zhu ◽  
Muhan Jiang ◽  
Lan Sang ◽  
Kun Hao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drug Development ◽  
In Silico ◽  
In Vitro Models ◽  
Clinical Settings ◽  
Culture Methods ◽  
Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic ◽  
Induced Pluripotent ◽  
In Silico Models

Human-derived in vitro models can provide high-throughput efficacy and toxicity data without a species gap in drug development. Challenges are still encountered regarding the full utilisation of massive data in clinical settings. The lack of translated methods hinders the reliable prediction of clinical outcomes. Therefore, in this study, in silico models were proposed to tackle these obstacles from in vitro to in vivo translation, and the current major cell culture methods were introduced, such as human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), 3D cells, organoids, and microphysiological systems (MPS). Furthermore, the role and applications of several in silico models were summarised, including the physiologically based pharmacokinetic model (PBPK), pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic model (PK/PD), quantitative systems pharmacology model (QSP), and virtual clinical trials. These credible translation cases will provide templates for subsequent in vitro to in vivo translation. We believe that synergising high-quality in vitro data with existing models can better guide drug development and clinical use.

scholarly journals Current Strategies in Assessment of Nanotoxicity: Alternatives to In Vivo Animal Testing

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 4216
Author(s):  
Hung-Jin Huang ◽  
Yu-Hsuan Lee ◽  
Yung-Ho Hsu ◽  
Chia-Te Liao ◽  
Yuh-Feng Lin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
In Silico ◽  
Biological Effects ◽  
Animal Experiments ◽  
Quantitative Structure Activity Relationship ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
Animal Testing ◽  
Qsar Modeling ◽  
Experimental Animals

Millions of experimental animals are widely used in the assessment of toxicological or biological effects of manufactured nanomaterials in medical technology. However, the animal consciousness has increased and become an issue for debate in recent years. Currently, the principle of the 3Rs (i.e., reduction, refinement, and replacement) is applied to ensure the more ethical application of humane animal research. In order to avoid unethical procedures, the strategy of alternatives to animal testing has been employed to overcome the drawbacks of animal experiments. This article provides current alternative strategies to replace or reduce the use of experimental animals in the assessment of nanotoxicity. The currently available alternative methods include in vitro and in silico approaches, which can be used as cost-effective approaches to meet the principle of the 3Rs. These methods are regarded as non-animal approaches and have been implemented in many countries for scientific purposes. The in vitro experiments related to nanotoxicity assays involve cell culture testing and tissue engineering, while the in silico methods refer to prediction using molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulations, and quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) modeling. The commonly used novel cell-based methods and computational approaches have the potential to help minimize the use of experimental animals for nanomaterial toxicity assessments.

scholarly journals Analysis of non-animal methods and models for research in cardiovascular disease

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emanuele Gasparotti ◽  
Margherita Cioffi ◽  
Vincenzo Positano ◽  
Emanuele Vignali ◽  
Benigno Marco Fanni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
In Silico ◽  
Animal Experiments ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Information Resources ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Inclusion Criteria ◽  
In Silico Models ◽  
State Of Art

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are disorders of the heart and blood vessels and represent 31% of all global deaths. In the contest of CVD, the use of animal experiments has been a contentious subject for many years. In recent years, in vitro and in silico models and methods have been proposed according to the 3Rs statement. However, an exhaustive report regarding the state of art in terms of in vitro and in silico experiments has not been reported yet. This work is focused on providing a collection of non-animal models and methods in use for basic and applied CVD research. The standardized descriptions of such studies will ultimately feed into EURL ECVAM database on alternative methods. Two are the research main phases. Firstly, the exclusion/ inclusion criteria and the list of relevant information resources of the research have been defined. The second phase regards the search, selection and detailed description of the literature papers by analysing records on Scopus and Pubmed databases.

The 18th FRAME Annual Lecture, October 2019: Human In Silico Trials in Pharmacology

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 221-227
Author(s):  
Blanca Rodriguez
Keyword(s):  
Drug Development ◽  
In Silico ◽  
Drug Testing ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Computer Modelling ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Magnetic Resonance Images ◽  
Population Heterogeneity ◽  
Drug Development Process

Safety and efficacy testing is a crucial part of the drug development process, and several different methods are used to obtain the necessary data (e.g. in vitro testing, animal trials and clinical trials). Our group has been investigating the potential of modelling and simulation as an alternative approach to some of the methods used for testing drugs for cardiac effects. To achieve our goal of developing and promoting novel approaches in drug development, we formed multidisciplinary collaborations that included clinicians, computer scientists and biologists. Our in silico models are based on human data (e.g. magnetic resonance images, electrocardiogram) and on current knowledge of human electrophysiology, thus generating predictions that are directly applicable to humans. Such models are a particularly powerful tool because they encompass different sources of population heterogeneity, which is crucial for drug testing and for assessing how interindividual variability might affect clinical endpoints. Our group has shown that computer modelling can be used to predict the effects of a test drug in a virtual population or in combination with machine learning to predict different phenotypes when a drug is given to a diseased population. Furthermore, our user-friendly drug testing software is freely available and is being adopted by industry in their drug development process. We have been engaging with industry and regulators to show that our models can contribute to the replacement of animals in drug development. Our ambition is to generate models for simulation of different diseases and therapies for investigations from subcellular to whole organ.

scholarly journals FBDD: In-silico STRATEGY TO INHIBIT MPRO ACTIVITY USING DRUGS FROM PREVIOUS OUTBREAKS

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 472-480
Author(s):  
Gauravi N Trivedi ◽  
◽  
Janhavi T Karlekar ◽  
Khushbu Dhimmar ◽  
Hetal kumar Panchal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drug Development ◽  
In Silico ◽  
Drug Targets ◽  
Transmission Rate ◽  
Respiratory Illness ◽  
Primary Treatment ◽  
Rational Drug Design ◽  
New Drugs ◽  
Main Protease

Main protease (Mpro) and Spike (S) proteins are said potential drug targets of COVID-19. Pneumonia like respiratory illness caused by SARS-CoV-2 is spreading rapidly due to its replication and transmission rate. Protease is the protein that is involved in both replication and transcription. Since CoV-2 shares, genomic similarity with CoV and MERS-CoV, drugs from previous outbreaks are used as primary treatment of the disease. In-silico drug development strategies are said to be faster and effective than in-vitro with a lesser amount of risk factors. Fragment Based Drug Designing (FBDD), also known as rational drug design in which a potential target protein is selected and docked with a lead-like molecule that eventually leads to drug development. Nine (9) drugs that are currently being used to treat patients of coronavirus were selected in this study from the latest literature review and fragmented as per rules followed by crosslinking of drug fragments using editor tools. These native drugs and synthesized drugs were then docked against the main protease. Results of the study revealed that one of the crosslinked lead-like compounds showed a higher binding affinity (∆G) more than any of the native compounds. Further, the results of this study suggested that the combination of potential drugs can be an effective way to develop new drugs to treat a deadly disease.

scholarly journals A fast and reliable method for monitoring genomic instability in the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merle Marie Nicolai ◽  
Barbara Witt ◽  
Andrea Hartwig ◽  
Tanja Schwerdtle ◽  
Julia Bornhorst
Keyword(s):  
Caenorhabditis Elegans ◽  
Animal Experiments ◽  
Model Organism ◽  
Animal Testing ◽  
C Elegans ◽  
Testing Strategies ◽  
Genotoxic Agents ◽  
Genotoxicity Testing

AbstractThe identification of genotoxic agents and their potential for genotoxic alterations in an organism is crucial for risk assessment and approval procedures of the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. Classically, testing strategies for DNA or chromosomal damage focus on in vitro and in vivo (mainly rodent) investigations. In cell culture systems, the alkaline unwinding (AU) assay is one of the well-established methods for detecting the percentage of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA). By establishing a reliable lysis protocol, and further optimization of the AU assay for the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans), we provided a new tool for genotoxicity testing in the niche between in vitro and rodent experiments. The method is intended to complement existing testing strategies by a multicellular organism, which allows higher predictability of genotoxic potential compared to in vitro cell line or bacterial investigations, before utilizing in vivo (rodent) investigations. This also allows working within the 3R concept (reduction, refinement, and replacement of animal experiments), by reducing and possibly replacing animal testing. Validation with known genotoxic agents (bleomycin (BLM) and tert-butyl hydroperoxide (tBOOH)) proved the method to be meaningful, reproducible, and feasible for high-throughput genotoxicity testing, and especially preliminary screening.

scholarly journals Replacement Strategies for Animal Studies in Inhalation Testing

Sci ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Eleonore Fröhlich
Keyword(s):  
Animal Models ◽  
In Silico ◽  
Particle Deposition ◽  
Drug Testing ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Inhalation Exposure ◽  
Animal Testing ◽  
The Future

Animal testing is mandatory in drug testing and is the gold standard for toxicity and efficacy evaluations. This situation is expected to change in the future as the 3Rs principle, which stands for the replacement, reduction, and refinement of the use of animals in science, is reinforced by many countries. On the other hand, technologies for alternatives to animal testing have increased. The need to develop and use alternatives depends on the complexity of the research topic and also on the extent to which the currently used animal models can mimic human physiology and/or exposure. The lung morphology and physiology of commonly used animal species differs from that of human lungs, and the realistic inhalation exposure of animals is challenging. In vitro and in silico methods can assess important aspects of the in vivo effects, namely particle deposition, dissolution, action at, and permeation through, the respiratory barrier, and pharmacokinetics. This review discusses the limitations of animal models and exposure systems and proposes in vitro and in silico techniques that could, when used together, reduce or even replace animal testing in inhalation testing in the future.

scholarly journals Versatile electrical stimulator for providing cardiac-like electrical impulses in vitro

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Gabetti ◽  
Giovanni Putame ◽  
Federica Montrone ◽  
Giuseppe Isu ◽  
Anna Marsano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cardiac Tissue ◽  
Animal Experiments ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Culture Conditions ◽  
Animal Testing ◽  
Electrical Stimulator ◽  
Electrical Impulses ◽  
Reliable Methods

In the perspective of reliable methods alternative to in vivo animal testing for cardiac tissue engineering (CTE) research, the versatile electrical stimulator ELETTRA has been developed. ELETTRA delivers controlled and stable cardiac-like electrical impulses, and it can be coupled to already existing bioreactors for providing in vitro combined biomimetic culture conditions. Designed to be cost-effective and easy to use, this device could contribute to the reduction and replacement of in vivo animal experiments in CTE.

scholarly journals Synthesis, In Silico, and In Vitro Evaluation of Anti-Leishmanial Activity of Oxadiazoles and Indolizine Containing Compounds Flagged against Anti-Targets

Molecules ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (7) ◽  
pp. 1282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Strahinja Stevanovic ◽  
Milan Sencanski ◽  
Mathieu Danel ◽  
Christophe Menendez ◽  
Roumaissa Belguedj ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Drug Resistance ◽  
In Silico ◽  
Leishmania Donovani ◽  
Experimental Testing ◽  
Chemotherapeutic Agents ◽  
Resistance Development ◽  
Ic50 Value ◽  
Human Leishmaniasis ◽  
Further Development

Due to the lack of approved vaccines against human leishmaniasis and the limitations of the current chemotherapy inducing side effects and drug resistance, development of new, effective chemotherapeutic agents is essential. This study describes the synthesis of a series of novel oxadiazoles and indolizine-containing compounds. The compounds were screened in silico using an EIIP/AQVN filter followed by ligand-based virtual screening and molecular docking to parasite arginase. Top hits were further screened versus human arginase and finally against an anti-target battery to tag their possible interactions with proteins essential for the metabolism and clearance of many substances. Eight candidate compounds were selected for further experimental testing. The results show measurable in vitro anti-leishmanial activity for three compounds. One compound with an IC50 value of 2.18 µM on Leishmania donovani intramacrophage amastigotes is clearly better positioned than the others as an interesting molecular template for further development of new anti-leishmanial agents.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document