Scientists create 'mini-organs' for drug testing without animals A study published in the journal ACS Central Science describes the development of mini-organs that could end animal testing of vaccines.

Developing and testing new treatments or vaccines for humans almost always involves unethical animal testing that endangers their health and life..

Alternatively, the researchers have developed a novel testing platform that encapsulates B cells into miniature " This development is detailed in a study published in ACS Central Science, a scientific journal published by the American Chemical Society..

Vaccines are designed to “introduce” the immune system to an antigen, which can be either part or all of a virus or bacterium.. This familiarity allows the body to prepare for future exposure to the virus by programming its B cells to produce antibodies against the antigen..

The traditional way to test vaccines involves administering them to animals and waiting weeks or months for results.. When developing an entirely new class of vaccines, scientists often have to evaluate many candidate vaccines, requiring numerous animal studies..

This method is time consuming, unreliable and cruel to animals – just some of the reasons why the medical community is trying to find an alternative to animal testing..

Elizabeth Baker, director of research policy for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, told VegNews: “There are many reasons to move away from the use of animals in medical research and towards innovative scientific testing methods that evolve and improve over time.. The results of animal testing of vaccines do not always provide reliable information about how these drugs can affect the human body.. In addition, modern society does not agree that animals should suffer and die for the sake of science..

For these reasons, researchers have begun to explore the use of organelles, which are small groups of cells that act like miniature organs and mimic the natural environment..

According to the study, hundreds of immune cell organelles can be created from the spleen of a single animal, greatly increasing testing throughput.. Researchers Matthew DeLisa, Ankur Singh and their colleagues set out to find out if this method would give results similar to animal testing and whether the new platform could be used to screen a large number of new vaccines..

To construct the organelles, the researchers isolated B cells from the mouse spleen, added cell signaling molecules and structural components, and then encapsulated the whole thing in a synthetic hydrogel matrix.. They then produced new versions of a vaccine that would fight the bacterium that causes tularemia, or "

The vaccines have been tested using both traditional mouse trials and a novel organoid platform..

B cells responded similarly in both formats and also provided information on several biochemical changes that occur when cells mature into antibody-producing cells..

As a result, the team found that the new platform could be used to identify B cell clones that generate highly antigen-specific antibodies that have a wide range of potential applications.. While these results are preliminary, the researchers say the organoid platform could help reduce the time needed to develop and evaluate new vaccines..

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