"Spent a bazillion dollars, they had a stack of data, animal data … and it still failed to help humans." "Rodents are notoriously terrible models for predicting cardiac arrhythmias." "Animal models are expensive, ethically contentious and not always predictive of human pathophysiology.”
There are over 200 connective tissue disorders that currently lack cures or effective treatments, many of which are seriously disabling or even fatal.
Diagnosing arthritis...
Diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma and lupus are a just
a few of a vast range of diseases that occur due to fibrosis, a term
that refers to abnormalities in the connective tissues throughout
the body.
Efforts to understand the pathology of fibrosis have centered on
animal experiments, inserting genes to create a “transgenic model,”
but these have failed to accurately mimic the human conditions.
Now, researchers from Brown University have created a 3D connective
tissue model grown from human cells that replicates both the
structure and mechanics of human fibrotic tissue.
A critical feature of the new model is that it doesn’t involve a
plastic scaffold typically used in 3D models. This allows the cells
to assemble in a more natural manner, importantly synthesizing their
own extracellular matrix (ECM). The ECM was until recently thought
to play only a minor part, but scientists now understand it has a
key role in maintaining normal tissue function.
Using this model, the Brown researchers can apply experimental
treatments to screen anti-fibrotic drugs more accurately than ever
before.
The fibrosis model is one of the latest developments to come out of the Brown University Center for Alternatives to Animals in Testing. Jeffrey Morgan, PhD, a professor of medical science and engineering who directs the Center says: “Animal models are expensive, ethically contentious and not always predictive of human pathophysiology.”
A range of other projects without animals are in progress at the
Center. Professor Agnes Kane, MD, PhD, abandoned prior work with
mouse models of inhalation toxicology. She now studies the health
effects of asbestos fibers and nanomaterials using human lung
microtissues that mimic the myriad types of lung cells and their
interactions.
Professor Kareen Coulombe, PhD, is working with other scientists at
Brown using cardiac microtissues derived from human induced
pluripotent stem cells. She and her team have shown that bisphenol
A, found in many plastics, can cause cardiac arrhythmias by blocking
vital ion channels in the heart.
She acknowledges it’s unlikely they would have found this with
animal experiments. “Rodents are notoriously terrible models for
predicting cardiac arrhythmias,” she says.
Dr. Morgan, who directs the Center, recognizes that despite its
failures, animal testing remains the status quo.
“What we’re trying to do is change the status quo. Do better science
with alternatives.” he says. “There are endless examples of animal
tests failing to predict human response, from thalidomide 60 years
ago to a potential Alzheimer’s treatment that was scrapped last year
… They’d spent a bazillion dollars, they had a stack of data, animal
data … and it still failed.”