hepatoxicity | Visikol

The Power of HUREL® Micro Livers in Predicting Drug Toxicity

Carol Tomaszewski — Mon, 19 Aug 2024 19:10:53 +0000

Drug toxicity is a major concern in the pharmaceutical industry. It is essential to identify potential toxic effects of drug candidates before they are tested in vivo. Animal testing has been the traditional method for predicting drug toxicity, but it is expensive, time-consuming, and raises ethical concerns. In vitro models have emerged as an alternative to animal testing, but they have limitations in accurately predicting drug toxicity. HUREL® Micro Livers are a breakthrough in vitro model that can predict drug toxicity with superior accuracy and reliability.

More About HUREL

HUREL® Micro Livers are self-assembling co-cultures of primary cryopreserved hepatocytes combined with a non-parenchymal stromal cell line. They are created by allowing the hepatocytes to spontaneously self-assemble into colonies. HUREL® Micro Livers are more accurate and reliable in predicting drug toxicity compared to other in vitro models due to their superior metabolic competency and long-enduring phenotypic stability. They can identify specific toxic effects such as hepatotoxicity and cytotoxicity in drug candidates.

The use of HUREL® Micro Livers reduces the need for animal testing. Animal testing is expensive, time-consuming, and raises ethical concerns. HUREL® Micro Livers can provide more reliable data than animal testing. They can predict drug toxicity with greater accuracy and reliability. HUREL® Micro Livers can also reduce the cost of drug development by reducing the need for animal testing.

In conclusion, HUREL® Micro Livers are a breakthrough in vitro model that can predict drug toxicity with superior accuracy and reliability. They can identify specific toxic effects such as hepatotoxicity and cytotoxicity in drug candidates. The use of HUREL® Micro Livers reduces the need for animal testing and provides more reliable data than other in vitro models. HUREL® Micro Livers are a cost-effective and ethical alternative to animal testing. Visikol’s contract research services can help pharmaceutical companies accelerate the drug discovery and development process by providing advanced tissue imaging and advanced cell culture services. If you’re interested in learning more, please reach out to a member of our team today!

The post The Power of HUREL® Micro Livers in Predicting Drug Toxicity first appeared on Visikol.

Hepatoxicity Screening Webinar On Demand

Carol Tomaszewski — Thu, 02 Feb 2023 13:34:46 +0000

Watch the ‘Hepatotoxicity Screening in HUREL® Micro Liver Models with Agilent xCELLigence Real-Time Cell Analyzer’ webinar on demand now!

Watch Here

Summary

The ability to predict the pharmacokinetic and toxicological properties of a drug early in the development process can materially reduce the likelihood of clinical failure, and subsequently the total cost of development. As such, there is a substantial and accelerating drive to identify model systems that more accurately predict human physiological responses to xenobiotics.

To fill the obvious gap in the drug development process, Visikol presents the HUREL Micro Liver model system. HUREL Micro Livers consist of cryopreserved primary hepatocytes co-cultured with a stromal fibroblast cell line, which aids in the hepatocytes’ maintenance of more in vivo-like characteristics compared to traditional hepatic mono-cultures, including long term viability and retention of cytochrome P450 isozyme activity. Combining the HUREL Micro Liver model system with Agilent’s impedance-based, label-free, xCELLigence real-time cell analysis (RTCA) technology allows for continuous monitoring of toxicity and ensures that no meaningful time points are missed.

In this webinar, Dr. Amir Wahba, senior principal scientist at Visikol Inc. will illustrate how real-time data enables identification of optimal treatment times and data collection, in addition to the evaluation of cytotoxicity onset and kinetics.

Webinar topics include:

The challenge of drug-induced hepatoxicity
Development of predictive in vitro model systems
The combination of Visikol’s HUREL and Agilent’s xCELLigence Technology

For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

Speakers

Amir Wahba, PhD
Senior Principal Scientist
Visikol Inc.

Dr. Amir Wahba is a senior principal scientist at Visikol Inc. In his current role, he leads the bioanalytical assay development in collaboration with the in vitro and the pharmacology teams utilizing LC-MS/MS. Dr. Wahba holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacognosy from the University of Mississippi, emphasizing the chemistry of natural products. During his graduate work, Dr. Wahba focused on discovering and developing anti-cancer and anti-malarial drug leads from the marine environment. He pioneered the structure elucidation of bioactive natural products and the development of in vitro platforms for the active compound’s evaluation. Following his postdoctoral training on carbohydrate synthesis at LSU, Dr. Wahba expanded his drug discovery skills to include nanotechnology, molecular biology, gene therapy, and metabolomic analysis by contributing to multidisciplinary projects in academia and industry. Before joining Visikol, Dr. Wahba served as a senior research associate at the Department of Neurosurgery at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers University, where he established an adenosine-based epigenetic drug discovery platform based on manipulating adenosine metabolism through small molecules and gene-based intervention for epilepsy and brain cancer treatment. Furthermore, he established the protein-protein interaction network of adenosine kinase utilizing mass spectrometry proteomics and metabolomics approaches to help us understand the consequence of adenosine kinase manipulation on cancer metabolism.

The post Hepatoxicity Screening Webinar On Demand first appeared on Visikol.

HUREL Models Assist in the Evaluation of Hepatoxicity

Carol Tomaszewski — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 14:07:40 +0000

Many drug candidates fail during clinical trials and post-market withdrawal due to hepatoxicity or Drug Induced Liver Injury (DILI). Animal studies have proven insufficient to predict these potential failures and risks. Researchers and toxicologist need a better tool or set of tools to assess the risk of hepatoxicity in pre-clinical trials. Many have turned to cell-based assays to evaluate these potential harmful risks. HUREL, a division of Visikol, has developed a long-enduring primary hepatocyte-based co-culture model to assist in the evaluation of hepatoxicity from potential drug candidates.

There are several hepatocyte-based in vitro models that have been developed for the prediction of DILI. One subset of these models is the 2D cell-based monoculture and co-cultures models. The monocultures use either primary hepatocytes or cell lines such as HepG2 or HepaRG. However, monocultures provide limited insight into hepatoxicity because of metabolic loss, decreased cell viability and de-differentiation which does not allow for large experimental windows. A co-culture model has improved metabolic competency and is better at predicting hepatoxic liabilities.

The model developed by HUREL, a multi-species, hepatic co-culture is comprised of cryopreserved primary hepatocytes from human, dog, rat, or other pre-clinical species, with non-parenchymal stromal cell line. This combination of cells allows for hepatocytes to maintain their viability and general cellular competency for two weeks.

In 2017, HUREL scientists published a study on the validation of their co-culture model, alongside Sanofi Pharmaceuticals and Chrysalis Pharma Partners in the journal Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, “Long-enduring primary hepatocyte-based co-cultures improve prediction of hepatoxicity”. In this study 19 compounds with known hepatotoxicity were evaluated in parallel with 10 proprietary compounds from Sanofi Pharmaceuticals. HUREL’s co-culture model showed greater sensitivity compared to monocultures in their ability to predict eventual outcomes in pre-clinical or clinical settings. This co-culture model was also able to distinguish between structurally and functionally similar compounds that had different potentially hepatotoxic effects. The main advantage to this model is that the longevity of the co-culture allows for the necessary time to see an accumulative effect on the hepatocytes from compounds. Evaluating time-based toxicity can facilitate earlier decision making based on repeated dosing results. Overall, the ability to obtain this data early on in the drug discovery/developmental pipeline has the ability to avoid late-stage failure of drug candidates that is currently an issue.

Visikol is committed to furthering and achieving our client’s goals in drug discovery. Contact us to work with our expert team of scientist.

The post HUREL Models Assist in the Evaluation of Hepatoxicity first appeared on Visikol.