'Lungs' and prospects for replacing animal research

Researchers at Harvard University's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering have simulated pulmonary edema in a microchip lined with human living cells , according to one. reported on November 7 in the Journal of Medical Science (Science Translation Medicine).

They used 'lung chips' (lung-on-a-chip) to study drug toxicity and identify new therapies to prevent this life-threatening condition.

This study provides additional evidence that organic chips have great potential to replace traditional approaches to research and development of drugs.

"The big pharmaceutical companies spend a lot of time and money on cell culture and testing," said Dr. Donald Ingber, the founding director of the Wyss Institute and lead author of the study. in animals to develop new drugs, but these methods often fail to predict the effects of drugs when drugs reach humans. '

The lung chips described by the research team just two years ago, are a flexible and clear crystalline polymer about the size of a memory stick containing hollow slots made using microchip manufacturing techniques. computer. Two of the grooves are separated by a thin, flexible and porous membrane that on one side is lined with human lung cells taken from the air bag and exposed to the air, capillary blood cells are placed on the other side with average flow on their surface. This lung chip can simulate elasticity like when a person breathes.

Dr. Dongeun Huh, Wyss Institute Technician Development, also holds a position at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, has studied a cancer chemotherapy drug called interleukin-2 (or abbreviated is IL-2) in a lung chip. The main side effect of IL-2 is pulmonary edema, which is a deadly condition in which the lungs are filled with fluid and blood clots (pleural effusion).

When IL-2 is injected into the blood grooves of lung chips, fluid penetrates through the membrane and two layers of tissue, reducing the volume of air in another groove and affecting oxygen transport in the blood. Blood proteins in the blood also pass through the air groove, leading to the formation of blood clots, as they were in people treated with IL-2.

Research results are a surprise. It shows the physical activity of breathing enhances the effects of IL-2 in pulmonary edema. This is something scientists have never suspected. The results suggest that doctors should reduce the amount of air waves pushed into the lungs to reduce the negative side effects of this drug.

Other authors involved in the study included senior researcher Dr. Daniel Leslie; Dr. Benjamin Matthews, doctor of biomedical doctor, assistant professor of pediatrics in Vascular Biology Program at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School and many other authors.

This work is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Applied Academy Wyss creative biology at Harvard University.