Lung on a Chip - Applications in Drug Screening and Design

Introduction

The field of drug screening and design has undergone numerous advances globally. Advanced technological aids have been utilized to mimic human organs and systems accurately to provide the best treatments. Among these advancements is lung-on-chip technology, a microfabrication technique aimed at mimicking the structure and function of human lungs. This article intends to explain this technological advancement and its implications on drug screening and design, highlighting its importance in the medicinal world.

How Do Traditional Drug Discovery Systems Work?

Conventional methods have always been used in vitro cultures, models, and animal testing. Those methods are very valuable. However, they do not replace or mimic the human organ system. The human organs are challenging because of their complex architecture and dynamic interaction with other cell types. Invivo models, like animal models, are also used in great numbers to study lung physiology and pathology. However, they still need to replicate the lung microenvironment's complexity fully. Also, ethical issues have been raised regarding using animal models for testing and research. Realizing all these limitations, science has developed techniques using microfabrication methods to create a more reliable and trustable 3D model. The advent of the lung-on-chip model offers a promising alternative by seeking to counter traditional methods' limitations. They provide a more relevant platform to study lung physiology and pathogenesis in case of diseases.

What Is the Lung-On-Chip Model?

A lung on a chip is a micro device that combines the principles of science and technology advances. It is an engineering device that replicates the human lungs. It uses microfabrication techniques and micro fluids, channels that are lined with living lung cells and capillary cells. They also have an embedded transparent polymer chip.

Most devices consist of two microchannels with a flexible membrane that helps create a blood chamber and a separate vacuum channel that helps stretch the membrane. All this helps mimic the mechanism of moments in the lungs. It is crystal clear and flexible, and the size of the computer memory stick. It contains channels of hollows made with microfabrication techniques. A porous membrane borders the channels. Opposite sides of the membrane are lined by lung cells and capillary cells. This helps mimic lungs. The application of channels makes the device stretch rhythmically like lungs when breathing occurs. Air flows over the top of lung human cells, and liquid medium flows below the capillary cell layer.

To summarize, the components include:

• Lung cells and capillary cells lining.

• Microfluidic channels.

• Chip.

What Are the Advantages of the Lung On-Chip Model?

1. They closely mimic the lung environment in building the scientific world to study more accurately.

2. They help during screening by enabling the researchers to test multiple drugs simultaneously.

3. They reduce the dependency on animals for testing, which is less reliable and may produce false results.

4. Researchers also introduced bacteria to assess the immune response to infection. And introduced white blood cells. It was noticed that white blood cells migrated through the capillary layer into the airspace to engulf bacteria.

5. It helps in mimicking disease conditions and applying treatments specific to it to check the effectiveness of the treatment; for example, to study Pulmonary edema, interleukin 2 was introduced in the bloodstream. This is used as a Lung cancer treatment drug, as pulmonary edema is its side effect. Fluid increased during normal breathing, and blood clots were also seen in the model.

6. This model is used to study physiology and create cultures in 3D models.

7. Microdevices have the potential to replace animals to test drugs and toxins.

8. This device mimics breathing living lungs. It is lined by human cells and mimics the chemical and mechanical functions of the lungs. With every breath, my air sacs expand. Oxygen enters the bloodstream, aerosols are absorbed, and infections and tumors form in the lungs.

What Are the Applications in Drug Screening?

• Disease Modeling: It helps replicate conditions like asthma, chronic pulmonary disease, pulmonary edema, and pulmonary fibrosis. This feature allows the clinician to study how the diseases are caused, determine potential risk factors, and how to prevent the disease.

• Toxicity Testing: These models help the clinician study the toxicity of a drug before administering it to the patient. The amount of toxicity on the side effects that the drug produces can be monitored and can be worked to reduce it as much as possible. This helps identify the potential adverse effects early on in the drug development process and helps them overcome them.

• Drug Efficacy Testing: Drugs with the most promising treatment outcomes can be assessed and used in the patient population.

What Are the Challenges and Future Directions Used for a Lung on a Chip Model?

Though this model seems very promising, it is still filled with challenges. Advanced technology is needed to produce this device to mimic the lungs. Standardizing the measurements is difficult, which is critical for adopting this device globally. Incorporating and figuring out the disease through these models also requires standardization among the researchers.

Future directions include:

1. Complexity Replication: The lungs integrate with other human organs and interact complexly with other body functions. Modern medicine can replicate this complex feature to provide a more holistic understanding of the lung effect.

2. Personalized: Making this model individually based on the patient helps to develop an approach assessment before using it on the patient.

3. Use of Biomarkers: The Lung on-chip model can monitor biomarkers in real-time. Enhancing this ability requires using them.

4. Globalization: That should be a call for globalization and standardization, a collaborative effort between the scientific community and physician healthcare providers to standardize this technology protocol and ensure consistent and productive results will help bring this technology.

Conclusion

To conclude, lung-on-chip technology is a significant technological advancement in drug screening and design. This offers an important and relevant three-dimensional model to study long-related diseases and evaluate the best possible treatment approaches as this field expands. Drug industries are bound to benefit from faster, more cost-effective, and more advanced treatment methods. Integrating this technological advancement with conventional drug screening methods can transform lung medicine, ultimately improving respiratory health and overall well-being.