[The role of the heart-on-a-chip to drug evaluation]

Organs-on-a-Chip (OoC) are innovative models designed to reproduce an architecture close to in vivo physiology, by recreating the specific microenvironment of each organ. They represent a promising advance in the process of developing new drugs, aimed at improving the prediction of adverse effects in preclinical studies and reducing the use of laboratory animals. However, a lack of validated standards governing these technologies currently limits their acceptance by regulatory authorities, who rely on guidelines to judge the admissibility of non-clinical studies. This is particularly the case for assessing the risk of cardiac damage using in silico, in vitro and in vivo tests. However, animal models are not always able to accurately detect adverse effects in humans. OoC are additional tools that could improve the assessment of drug cardiac toxicity. According to data in the literature, the results of studies with OoC overlap with those of conventional models. What's more, in some cases, OoC offer better prediction via the detection of biomarkers such as alpha-actin and troponin T. These results could lead to their integration into the regulatory process for preclinical drug evaluation.