Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains a predominant global health concern, responsible for 32% of global deaths1. In the European Union, CVD imposes an annual economic burden of €210 billion, comprising healthcare expenses of €111 billion, productivity losses of €54 billion, and informal care costs of €45 billion.2 The intricate nature of CVD, encompassing diverse conditions within the cardiovascular system, presents significant challenges for drug development, primarily due to its complexity and the stringent safety assessments required. Addressing the multifaceted nature of CVD necessitates identification of suitable drug targets and development of therapies that can effectively address its various manifestations. To enhance the success rate of drug development while meeting the objectives to decrease reliance on animal testing, there is an increasing need for advanced research tools and predictive, translational models in cardiac research.3
Taking on the world’s biggest killer
INTEC Cardiac Screening
A major factor preventing development of new cardiac drugs is the lack of predictive in vitro models. Most currently used cell-based cardiac models rely on simple cell mixtures, and do not eanble in-depth functional analysis.
A The primary objective of INTEC is to create an integrated system enabeling researchers to advance understanding of cardiac cell behavior and functionality in a way that enables precise evaluations of cardiac therapies early in the discovery process. Our approach involves merging the BioZone microfluidic flow probe from Fluicell, with the MultiCell system from CytoCypher/IonOptix, which will be further enhanced with single-cell analysis capabilities, artificial intelligence algorithms, and proteomics/genomics analysis tools. This integration addresses the urgent demand for improved human models and research tools in CVD drug development and enhances cardiac safety assessments during development of new medications.
In vitro models and 3R
Because of the physiological differences to humans, animal research models often lack sufficient predictive power that can result in late-stage drug development failure and decreased development efficiency. The use of animals for research purposes also carries with it a large number of ethical concerns. The Reduce, Refine, Replace (3R) perspective focuses on new ways to limit the use of laboratory animals, either by reducing the need for animal testing, or by introducing alternative methods that replace animal experiments.
The INTEC project adheres to the 3R principles by making it possible to create human cell-based cardiac research models with improved predictive power. This way, the integrated platform will make it possible to replace animals in early stage development and potentially also reduce the need for laboratory animal use for laboratory testing, as cardiotoxic effects can be detected earlier in the development process.
References
- https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cardiovascular-diseases-(cvds)
- Wilkins _et al_., European Cardiovascular Disease Statistics 2017
- DOI/10.2760/94608
INTEC 