"Metabo-lung" instead of guinea pigs

New drugs will be tested on artificial lungsABC Magazine based on Medical Xpres materials:

Breakthrough could speed drug discovery

Researchers from the School of Biosciences at Cardiff University integrated human liver and lung cells and created a "Metabo-Lung" - an artificial copy of the human lung, suitable for assessing the toxicity of drugs. (A fragment of the "metabo-lung" slice is shown in the image from the Cardiff University press release - VM.)

Liver cells in this model play the role of biotransformers, decomposing drugs into metabolites, which, as a rule, have various side effects. The creation of the "metabo-lung" cost scientists 138.3 thousand pounds. The money for the development was allocated by the Welsh government.

A group of scientists led by Dr. Kelly BeruBe is convinced that an artificial lung can not only accelerate the development of new drugs at times, allowing to identify possible toxic side effects at the earliest stages of drug testing, but also significantly reduce the number of experiments on animals. In the near future, new drugs for the treatment of asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and pulmonary fibrosis will be tested on an artificial lung.

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28.11.2011