Research could offer alternative to animals in drug tests
Team at Reading University produces a synthetic tissue that mimics properties of mucosal tissues
A team of scientists funded by the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), has developed a new way to test the adhesive qualities of drugs under laboratory development, which could replace the current practice of using animal tissue. The study, carried out at the University of Reading, has produced a synthetic tissue, a hydrogel, which mimics the properties of mucosal tissues, such as those found in the mouth and stomach, to assess how medicines will react in the body. Mucosal tissues taken from animals are commonly used in the development phase of new drugs. Tablets that can attach to mucosal tissue extend the time the drugs remain in the body, reducing the frequency of dosing, and also offer the possibility of targeting particular parts of the body. Common conditions treated by mucoadhesive drugs include angina and inflammatory diseases. Dr Vitaliy Khutoryanskiy, from Reading School of Pharmacy, said mucosal tissues taken from animals are used by the pharmaceutical industry in the development of drugs to prolong the time that tablets are in contact with the mouth's mucosal lining. ‘The use of animal tissues in adhesion experiments doesn't always produce the best results because of their variable properties,’ he said. ‘The new synthetic hydrogels mimicked the porcine mucosal tissues that we used in our study better than any other material we tested, and could prove a real alternative to using animal material for testing the mucoadhesive properties of future medicines.’ Developing synthetic mucosa-mimetic hydrogels to replace animal experimentation in characterisation of mucoadhesive drug delivery systems, is published in Soft Matter by the Royal Society of Chemistry.