In Vitro Lung Assays to Predict Drug Toxicity

A two-year grant of about U.S.$1.6 million from the U.S. National Cancer Institute to research and develop in vitro lung assays has been awarded to SRI International (Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park, CA, USA), an independent nonprofit research organization.

The objective of the SRI program is to develop, optimize, and validate an in vitro lung cell assay that can assess the potential for both acute and chronic effects on the lung. The company's approach is to build assays around multicellular systems that promote good culture survival while modeling lung injury toxicities. The assays will be used to screen for targeted toxicities and to aid the prediction of safe dose levels and regimens for cancer drugs in clinical trials.

Study and assessment of chronic effects on the lung, such as pulmonary fibrosis, requires relatively long-term cultures of multicellular systems. In the past, cell cultures have had limited value because of their short survival times of three to four days. A variety of histologic and biochemical techniques can be applied to the cultures to assess toxic response and organ-specific effects.

"Pulmonary complications are a serious clinical side effect of many cancer therapies,” noted Charles Tyson, Ph.D., director of SRI's Advanced In Vitro Toxicology Program and the project's investigator. "Until now, there have been no generally accepted in vitro model systems for studying and characterizing chronic effects of toxicants in the lungs.”




Related Links:
U.S. National Cancer Institute
SRI International