- Lab-Grown Mini Organs Could Speed Up Drug Discovery (forbes.com)
The thought of lab-grown organs conjures up Frankenstein-like imagery. The reality however, is somewhat less visually dramatic, with the term ‘organoids’ used to describe tiny 3D structures of human tissue, a millimeter or so in diameter...these tiny lumps of cells are creating a lot of excitement in the world of medical research...Cells in dishes and animal models have been used for preclinical testing of drugs for decades. Success in these experiments is a key hurdle for any new medicine to overcome before being given the green light for all-important human clinical trials...Organoids are most commonly made either from a small sample of tissue needled out of a person or from stem cells cultured in a cocktail of nutrients intent on pushing them towards becoming a particular tissue type. So far, organoids have been made resembling several tissues including lung, liver, brain, kidney and intestine...as a relatively new innovation they are being used to investigate dozens of conditions from infectious diseases to cancer.... A study published last year in Science Translational Medicine by scientists at the University Medical Centre, Utrecht generated organoids formed from the rectal tissue of 71 people with cystic fibrosis and exposed them to experimental drugs. By observing changes in the organoids, the scientists accurately predicted which patients would respond to the therapies in just one week at a cost of around $1200 per patient. The results were so convincing that a positive organoid test is now considered sufficient evidence for insurance companies to fund the new therapies in the Netherlands...
- Drug dosing goes digital with software to personalize medication (statnews.com)Individualizing liver transplant immunosuppression using a phenotypic personalized medicine platform (stm.sciencemag.org)
A new algorithm may take the guesswork out of medicating patients with cancer, bacterial infections, organ transplants, and other conditions that require very precise drug dosing...Individual differences can alter patient response to medications...Metabolism, body type, ethnicity, other illnesses, and genetics can play a role in how patients respond to drug treatment...The researchers call their method parabolic personalized dosing, or PPD. They gave patients medication and then observed the dosages which brought positive responses...the dosage could be reduced or increased based on how much medication was in the patient’s blood, with the successful doses added to the parabola. The researchers called the parabola "a robust map that identifies drug doses (inputs) that ensure that a patient will stay in a target range."...Establishing a patient’s parabola still requires administering drugs and then observing the response, something doctors already do. "This allows us to make a better guess,"...In the age of big data, algorithms could play a helpful role in integrating a lot of patient information to make dosing decisions.
- Hydrogels: Study shows use in ulcerative colitis and Army invests in wound healing research (fiercedrugdelivery.com)
A hydrogel is a polymeric material capable of holding large amounts of water in its 3-D structural network. Because it acts as the gel equivalent of a sponge, hydrogels are ideal for delivering different kinds of drugs and performing necessary functions. This week, hydrogels have shown to be useful in treating inflammatory bowel problems...