Barbara Stagno, CAARE
Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research and Experimentation
December 2018
Researchers are using human sputum samples from cystic fibrosis patients to model nearly 600 different CF lung conditions, allowing researchers to accurately, inexpensively, and rapidly test various treatments and hypotheses on real human tissue, bypassing flawed results from outdated and inhumane animal tests.
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a debilitating genetic disease caused by a
mutation that disables essential proteins, resulting in thick mucus forming
in the lungs, pancreas, and other organs. For patients, this results in a
lifetime struggling with difficulty breathing and digestive problems.
Tragically, the condition often limits the patient to a 40- or 50-year
lifespan.
For decades, scientists have used animals to study cystic fibrosis, but with
disappointing results. Researchers discovered that even mice genetically
engineered with CF genes were “lessened by important differences between
murine and human airway epithelium.”
It’s not just rats and mice. Hundreds of experiments on animals are carried
out to study cystic fibrosis, and scientists have expanded their scope,
using genetically modified pigs and ferrets who are made to suffer from the
symptoms of CF.
But many scientists recognize the pressing need for human-centered research
to truly understand cystic fibrosis and ultimately cure it.
At the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, a team of
scientists have created a human lung model that demonstrates how various
factors such as pH, oxygen levels and antibiotics can alter the microbiome
of the human lung in cystic fibrosis.
Pieter Dorrestein, professor of pharmacology and pediatrics at UCSD, and
Robert Quinn, professor of biochemistry at Michigan State University
(formerly at UCSD) are using human sputum samples from cystic fibrosis
patients to model nearly 600 different CF lung conditions.
The team was able to show how microbes in CF lungs can be categorized as
thriving in high or low levels of oxygen (aerobic vs anaerobic), a finding
that explained why a common fungal infection often found in cystic fibrosis
patients occurs following the use of antibiotics. Specifically, the
antibiotic's eradication of the bacteria creates the anaerobic conditions
necessary for the fungus to thrive.
Photo Credit: UC San Diego School of Medicine
Awareness of the crucial need for non-animal research is growing. The
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation recently awarded a grant to the renowned Wyss
Institute to develop an organ chip capable of modeling the lung pathology
seen in patients with cystic fibrosis. The Wyss Institute is a world leader
in developing organs-on-chips, which are miniaturized systems that can model
human organs and diseases that afflict them.
Like the USCD lung model, an organ chip that can simulate cystic fibrosis
will allow researchers to accurately, inexpensively, and rapidly test
various treatments and hypotheses on real human tissue, bypassing flawed
results from outdated and inhumane animal tests.
Return to Alternatives to Animal Testing, Experimentation and Dissection