Microfluidic-Based Multi-Organ Platforms for Drug Discovery.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Pharmacology
• Toxicology

Background:

• Predictive in vitro models are essential for screening new therapeutic agents, but current biomimetic platforms face challenges in clinical application.
• Recent advancements in physiologically-based pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (PBPK-PD) modeling, microfluidics, and in silico approaches have enabled sophisticated single- and multi-organ platforms.
• Investigating drug interactions and tissue-tissue crosstalk requires advanced models that mimic human organ systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide an overview of microfluidic-based organ-on-chip model design principles for drug testing.
• To highlight the current state-of-the-art in predictive multi-organ models for studying interconnected organ crosstalk.
• To discuss challenges in establishing predictive body-on-chip (BOC) models for comprehensive drug interaction characterization.

Main Methods:

• Review of microfluidic-based organ-on-chip technologies.
• Analysis of physiologically-based pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (PBPK-PD) modeling principles.
• Discussion of in silico modeling and nanotechnology applications in multi-organ systems.

Main Results:

• Microfluidic organ-on-chip platforms offer promising avenues for drug development.
• Multi-organ models are advancing the study of inter-organ communication and drug effects.
• Significant challenges remain in scaling, cell integration, and study design for predictive body-on-chip models.

Conclusions:

• Organ-on-chip technology and multi-organ models represent a significant step towards predictive drug screening.
• Addressing challenges in body-on-chip model development is key to their clinical translation.
• These advanced in vitro systems have the potential to revolutionize therapeutic agent evaluation.