Cell printing: screening for personalized cancer drugs "new tricks"
January 8, 2019 Source: Science and Technology Daily Author: Ye Lu Wenjie
Window._bd_share_config={ "common":{ "bdSnsKey":{ },"bdText":"","bdMini":"2","bdMiniList":false,"bdPic":"","bdStyle":" 0","bdSize":"16"},"share":{ }};with(document)0[(getElementsByTagName('head')[0]||body).appendChild(createElement('script')) .src='http://bdimg.share.baidu.com/static/api/js/share.js?v=89860593.js?cdnversion='+~(-new Date()/36e5)];"The micro-liver tissue printed in 3D was transplanted into mice, and the survival time of mice was significantly improved, and there was neovascularization." Recently, it was sponsored by the Bio-Additive Manufacturing Industry Group of China Additives Manufacturing Industry Alliance. At the academic forum of “Bio 3D Printing Driven Innovative Medicine†sponsored by General Medicine, Xu Wei, a professor and doctoral supervisor of Tsinghua University, revealed the new research results of 3D bioprinting. He stressed that the current printing of living organs is mainly in the basic research stage, preparing for clinical.
"We are exploring the possibility of cell printing applied to the human body, and have been implanted in human clinical trials in the planned printing 'urethra', which is expected to become the world's first live-printing, field-implanted experiment." Xu Wei said.
3D printing can simulate the stem cell growth environment
The concept of bio 3D printing technology was born in 2000 and was proposed by American scientist Thomas Poland. As the first doctoral student of Professor Thomas, Xu Wei realized this technical concept. He and the mentor jointly own the world's first cell printing patent.
"The impact factor of "Biofabrication" magazine has increased from 0 to 6.838, which shows that the bio 3D printing industry has developed rapidly in recent years," he said.
The application of bio 3D printing has been developed from the initial printing of materials that can not be directly used in human body but for medical applications, to cell printing, using living cells as the main printing unit to construct active tissues and organs of the human body. And as technology continues to innovate, innovative applications for cell printing in the medical field are eye-opening.
Cell printing can help people evaluate the efficacy of new drugs and achieve personalized cancer drug screening. "Oncology drug treatment, the initial drug use is based on experience, and later using genetic diagnosis to find the target. But the gene belongs to the basic information, the current means can not detect all drug resistance and drug response gene information." Xu Wei said that the tumor drug development In the 3.0 era, doctors can take out individualized tumor cells for tissue-level diagnosis. The difficulty is to reconstruct the patient's tumor tissue.
Xu Wei has studied malignant tumors such as glioma cells, astrocytes, and brain microvascular endothelial cells. He cited the glioma as an example and told the Science and Technology Daily reporter: "We isolated the cells from the excised tumor tissue and printed them into cell chips. Then combined with genetic analysis, we put different drugs on the cell chip for treatment. To find the most ideal drug for the patient."
In the field of stem cell and immune cell therapy, cell printing is also promising. After several decades of development, the effects of stem cell treatment on various diseases tend to be clear, stem cell research and clinical transformation into the "golden window period" of blowout. However, stem cell culture for clinical applications faces the challenges of quantity, quality and contamination.
“In the laboratory stage, a small number of stem cells can achieve the research goal. In clinical conversion, a patient often needs billions of levels of stem cells. The number of stem cells collected from the human body is only a few million or tens of millions, and needs to be amplified. Billions of levels, this is a huge challenge." Xu Wei pointed out. In addition, clinical cell culture does not use antibiotics and the risk of contamination increases.
He is conducting research in this area and has found that in a 3D printing environment, he is able to simulate the growth environment of stem cells, with the ability to amplify millions of cells into billions of cells.
Faced with the lack of access standards
Is cell printing expected to be implanted into the human body? "At present, the printing of living organs is mainly at the stage of basic research and preparation for clinical use." Xu Wei explained that because living cells are involved, not only technically but also developed, countries must conduct supervision and regulation, but at this stage they face The dilemma of the lack of industry access standards.
“Implementing simple organ printing is currently based.†Xu Wei said that the world has used artificial bladder to keep children alive for more than a decade. There are more than 10 children in the United States, who have a small bladder and have to go to the toilet every 10 minutes to get to school. His mentor took a piece of stamp-sized cell tissue from his bladder. After a month or so of cultivation, the cell tissue grew rapidly and the area covered the football field. The bladder mold is then prepared, and the cell scaffold is constructed with the polymer degradable material, which is like a grape rack, and the cultivated bladder cells are planted, and after about one month, transplanted into the child. “The cells come from the body and there is no problem with rejection.†He said that in the cell printing stage, the thing to do is to automate the process of making the original mold.
For the prospect of 3D bio-printing technology in clinical scale application, he is optimistic, "challenging, promising." Xu Wei revealed that he is prepared to cooperate with the instructor to print a urethra using urethral cells for urethra repair.
Urethral stenosis is a difficult disease in the clinic. At present, the treatment of the urethra with the patient's skin or oral mucosa will cause secondary injury, and it is more difficult to solve with a large, long urethral defect.
"We intend to use cell printing technology to remove the patient's urethral endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells responsible for urethral contraction, and print the main materials that constitute the urethra, and assemble them into a multi-cell double-layer structure 'urethra', which is then implanted into the patient. Xu Wei said that their team is now preparing for preclinical and planning clinical trials.
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