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AbstractA Swiss company provides access to humanized immune system (HIS) mice susceptible to human immune system (IS) diseases. It offers its technology to industrial and academic partners for preclinical development of therapeutic potential compounds against human IS diseases: infectious (HIV, Hepatitis C, etc), cancer, IS related. Advantages are cost-effectiveness, study time reduction and direct observation of human IS characteristics. Moreover, HIV mice model is the only alternative to monkey modelsDetailsThe Swiss company currently provides humanized mice as preclinical and clinical models.The humanized immune system (HIS) mice: To reconstitute the human immune system for drug profiling before entering into clinical testing has been identified as an unmet need by the pharmaceutical industry. A major breakthrough has been made recently with the possibility to transplant and engraft compatible mouse strains with haematopoietic stem cells derived from human cord blood. These humanized immune system (HIS) mice are now susceptible to human diseases and infections, such as HIV, and therefore is a very useful tool to study different anti-retroviral approaches. The HIS mouse can be used for research in many other therapeutic areas, including various infectious diseases (e.g. CMV, EBV, Dengue Virus), tumours, transplantation immunology, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, as well as vaccine responses. Mice with a humanized immune system (HIS) can be infected with the HIV virus to develop a full blown disseminated HIV infection. The so called HIS/HIV mouse model is emerging as the first choice animal model for the testing of preclinical anti-HIV drug candidates. Indeed, the only alternative approach is the costly monkey HIV model. There are clear unmet medical and economic needs for the testing of anti-HIV drugs in rodents. The most interesting application of this model is the development of new anti-HIV drugs, in particular screening of potential new anti-retroviral compounds, and the optimization of fixed-dose drug combinations. Also, HIV latency and resistance against known or new drug can be explored. The HIS/HIV model is available via a fee-for-service and is offered to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, as well as academic R&D groups that are studying human immune system and related diseases. The HIV radical cure project: A few years ago an HIV patient was cured through transplantation of HIV resistant cells. This news has raised high hopes that such a treatment could, for the first time, provide a cure for HIV worldwide. However, many challenges need to be overcome in order for such a treatment to be possible. The Swiss company plans to develop such a cure by engineering an HIV-resistant immune system. Research partners as well as sponsors are welcome to join the company to meet this challenge. Innovative Aspects: - The HIS/HIV mouse is the current first choice animal model for the testing of preclinical anti-HIV drug candidates as well as fixed-dose drug combinations. - The HIS mouse models allow safety, efficacy and toxicity studies of potential pharmaceutical compounds. - HIS mouse models allow chronic drug testing and efficacy measures for a long study period. - Chimeric mice with a reconstituted human immune system can be used to develop new therapies against any disease affecting the human immune system. - Preclinical testing with HIS mouse allows better drug profiling based on efficacy and safety, and to select the best candidate for clinical studies. A substantial budget saving can be expected if the correct drug is selected earlier in the development process.
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