EARA News Digest 2024 - Week 47
Welcome to your Monday morning update, from EARA, on the latest news in biomedical science, policy and openness on animal research.
This week: Antibody cancer treatment; Developing malaria vaccines – EARA Q&A; Replacement lip cell model; Cats & brain ageing |
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Successful cancer antibody treatment in mice
A type of antibody treatment that combines three different functions has successfully treated mice with cancer, in new research from Sweden.
The work, at EARA member Uppsala University, as well as the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Karolinska Institute, both in Stockholm, and biotech company Strike Pharma AB, in Uppsala, developed a ‘three-in-one’ treatment to precisely target and deliver drugs to cancer cells (via the antibody BiA9*2_HF), but also to simultaneously activate the immune system.
That means the treatment directs the immune system to target specific gene mutations only found in cancer cells (neoantigens), while amplifying the effect of immune T cells – which can identify and eliminate cancer cells.
When tested in mice with cancer tumours, the antibody treatment (which is also an immunotherapy because it makes use of the immune system) both prolonged survival and, at higher doses, prevented the animals from developing cancer.
In addition, a molecule called a peptide can be created that is tailored to a particular cancer and tumour, and that can then be linked to the core antibody, to develop a custom, precision medicine for different types of cancer.
“Both in terms of production cost and the short time it takes to tailor a peptide to a new tumour, this increases availability and should make it quicker for patients to go from diagnosis to treatment,” explained Johan Rockberg, at KTH.
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Developing malaria vaccines – EARA Q&A
The latest EARA #TransparencyThursday video features Miguel Prudêncio, of the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine ( GIMM), Portugal, (an EARA member) who has spoken about his use of animals in research to develop drugs and vaccines for malaria. In the Q&A, Miguel explains how his lab uses mice to assess the effect of compounds and candidate vaccines that could be used to treat malaria – a disease that kills more than half a million children a year worldwide. For him it is essential to use animals in his research as ‘we cannot recapitulate the complexity of an organism inside a Petri dish or a cell plate’. This is particularly true for vaccine research, where the response of the immune system across multiple cells and organs needs to be studied. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Miguel was a key scientific spokesperson in the Portuguese media and spoke extensively about the Covid-19 vaccine and vaccination – in the EARA Q&A, he also shared his top tips for communicating research with the public. Find all episodes of #TransparencyThursday on the EARA YouTube channel.
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First 3D model of human lips to study disease
Research from Switzerland has led to the development of a 3D lab model of human lip cells, replacing the need to use mice in the study of lip diseases and lesions.
Lip injuries and infections are challenging to study and treat due to the unique characteristics of lip cells, however researchers at the University of Bern used cells from patients with lip lacerations and cleft lips, to create ‘immortalised’ lip cells.
These were genetically modified to continue reproducing without ‘cell death’ while also preserving the unique characteristics of lip cells.
In tests to validate the new 3D lip model, it reacted in the same way as human lips do to wounds and the yeast infection candidiasis.
The study was published in Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology.
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Can cats help us understand brain ageing in humans?
A study by US researchers suggests that the similarities in how the brains of pet cats and humans age could help us understand more about brain diseases.
Brain aging involves changes that occur in later life, including cognitive decline due to diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
The team at Auburn University, Alabama, analysed data gathered from pets cats coming into the university’s Small Animal Hospital, as well as from more than 3,000 cats whose humans consented to the use of their information.
The study found that by the time a cat reaches 15, it is comparable in brain age to a person in their 80s. At this stage, some cats may begin to show signs of cognitive decline that resemble those seen in aging humans.
Previous studies with cats have also shown abnormal protein plaques and tangles, similar to those associated with Alzheimer’s disease in humans.
Other animals are useful to study brain aging, such as mice and monkeys, while studies are also underway into ageing in dogs, as they share a similar environment with their owners. Pet cats also share the same sort of environment, but are generally not as highly inbred as dogs and can often live longer.
Christine Charvet, at Auburn, who presented the work, told Nature: “To address challenges in human medicine, we need to draw from a wide range of model systems. Cats, lemurs, mice are all useful. We shouldn’t focus all our efforts on one.”
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