It's Not a Pet
22/03/12 14:10 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Submitted by S. Pelech - Kinexus on Thu, 03/22/2012 - 14:10.
The broad biomedical research community has deemed it quite acceptable to create transgenic mice with a wide range of mutations to elucidate the roles of specific genes in normal and pathological processes for over 20 years. Many of these transgenic animals die during early development in utero and the unlucky ones manage to survive to live long enough to acquire cancer and other horrific diseases. Although such animals are expensive to produce and truly provide limited insights into common diseases that affect adult humans, they are becoming increasingly popular for drug testing. Immune compromised mice have also long been used for cultivation of human tumours from transplanted cancer cells.
The identification of the driver cancer mutations in the sequenced genome from the tumour of a patient is itself a very challenging task. Recent studies have revealed a high degree of heterogeneity of mutations from different regions of even the same tumour. For most of the hundreds of genes that have been linked to cancer development, there are no suitable drugs. The successful cultivation of a human tumour in an immune compromised mouse is also not sure-fire. Presumably several mice would have to be produced for testing a range of potential drugs in various combinations at different concentrations. Due to the acquisition of new mutations in growing tumours from defects in DNA repair proteins, the genetic profiles of descendant tumours in the mice could actually be quite diverse and respond differently to even the same drugs. Ultimately, an entire customized research program would be required to deliver personalized medicine as proposed in Rebecca Boyle's Popular Science article.
Due to the expertise, time and expense required, only the super-rich and scientists that are "generously" willing to serve as test models would benefit from such drastic measures. It would seem more practical to focus on the development of in vitro models where the effects of potential drugs could be tested on the viability of isolated cancer cells from a patient that are grown in culture.
Link to the original blog post.
The broad biomedical research community has deemed it quite acceptable to create transgenic mice with a wide range of mutations to elucidate the roles of specific genes in normal and pathological processes for over 20 years. Many of these transgenic animals die during early development in utero and the unlucky ones manage to survive to live long enough to acquire cancer and other horrific diseases. Although such animals are expensive to produce and truly provide limited insights into common diseases that affect adult humans, they are becoming increasingly popular for drug testing. Immune compromised mice have also long been used for cultivation of human tumours from transplanted cancer cells.
The identification of the driver cancer mutations in the sequenced genome from the tumour of a patient is itself a very challenging task. Recent studies have revealed a high degree of heterogeneity of mutations from different regions of even the same tumour. For most of the hundreds of genes that have been linked to cancer development, there are no suitable drugs. The successful cultivation of a human tumour in an immune compromised mouse is also not sure-fire. Presumably several mice would have to be produced for testing a range of potential drugs in various combinations at different concentrations. Due to the acquisition of new mutations in growing tumours from defects in DNA repair proteins, the genetic profiles of descendant tumours in the mice could actually be quite diverse and respond differently to even the same drugs. Ultimately, an entire customized research program would be required to deliver personalized medicine as proposed in Rebecca Boyle's Popular Science article.
Due to the expertise, time and expense required, only the super-rich and scientists that are "generously" willing to serve as test models would benefit from such drastic measures. It would seem more practical to focus on the development of in vitro models where the effects of potential drugs could be tested on the viability of isolated cancer cells from a patient that are grown in culture.
Link to the original blog post.