Before new drugs are prescribed
Before new drugs are prescribed, it is necessary to test their workability and safety. Drug ZL 105 being a newly invented drug for cancer treatment requires to be tested for its efficacy and toxicity before it's recommended for usage by patients. Cancer is caused by unregulated cell proliferation within the body. Currently, it is among the leading causes of deaths worldwide. One reason why cancer has continued to be a menace is due to unavailability of preclinical studies that go past Phase II of clinical trials (Kumar, 2016). Also, improper utilization of preclinical modalities for drugs that can be used for cancer screening is another challenge. There are various models utilized when testing drugs and they include the use of animals, cell cultures, and computer simulations. Animal models such as genetically engineered mouse models, vitro human cancer cell lines, and tumor xenografts are some of the commonly used testing potential anticancer drugs (Kumar, 2016).
Models for Testing Cancer Treatment
Mice are among the commonly used creatures in animal testing models. Although mice models of cancer have in the past been associated with providing immeasurable transitional value in the discovery of cancer treatments, they are currently used for confirming biological relevance of tumor growths as well as testing efficacy of drugs in regard to tumor response. For a long period now, scientists have been preparing humanised tumor xenografts using mice and using them do in vivo efficacy evaluation of possible cancer therapies (Hidalgo et al., 2014). Examples are the patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models that are prepared artificially through the growth of convectional cell line in immune-deficient mice. Mice models have the capability of identifying biomarkers as well as establishing therapeutic windows during cancer testing and therefore, can allow collection of vital results during ZL 105 testing.
PDX models
PDX models have in the past been effectively used by Rubio-Perez and co-researchers to analyse cancer treatment strategies (Rubio-Perez et al., 2015). His analysis involved the development of an In Silico prescribed strategy that utilized cancer genome obtained from pan-cancer patients. The In Silico prescribed strategy proved to be an important cancer analysis since it was able to identify 80 therapeutically targetable cancer genes (Rubio-Perez et al., 2015). Their analysis was also able to approve the In Silico prescription as a therapy for cancer patients. In fact, 73.3% of patients from the large pan-cancer cohort were eligible to benefit from agents in clinical stages (Rubio-Perez et al., 2015).
Pros and cons of PDX Model
The model preserves tumor heterogeneity and lineage hierarchy since patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models preserves primary characteristics belonging to a donor tumor. The characteristics are further passed through mouse to mouse successive passage. Also, contamination of human stromal tissues by normal DNA is minimised when PDX models are used. PDX models also provide predictability in the prognosis and outcome of cancer treatment. Lastly, PDX model is a simple subcutaneous technique. Cons of this model involve poor predictive power as well as the model causing changes in biological circuits of cancer cells that differ from the host's entity.
Determining Safety and Effectiveness of Drug
Carrying out a test allows determination of efficacy, toxicity, and lethality of the drug. Efficacy test is mostly carried by professionals in controlled clinical trials to evaluate a drug's performance. Therefore, determining the efficacy of Drug ZL 105 is important since it allows investigation of the drug's ability to give desirable effects. Also, efficacy allows checking potential effects of Drug ZL 105 side effects. Toxicity testing is performed to reveal the species used to prepare the drug as well as their toxic effects. Toxicity is commonly performed using toxicological screening. Lastly, determining lethality of a drug allows determination of drug dosage and can cause death to the specimen being studied when exceeded. In many cases, lethality is performed in two different species, i.e. rodents and non-rodents. Therefore determining lethality, toxicity, and efficacy will allow determination of safety and effectiveness of Drug ZL 105. All these tests are important when performing a test for the iridium made Drug ZL 105.
My thought on the Information gathered from Tests
Conducting discovery and development on a Drug ZL 105 allows the determination of whether the drug will be allowed to proceed to further drug development processes before being prescribed to patients. Information gathered from our test will determine whether Drug ZL 105 is eligible for development as a cancer treatment. Once researchers have approved that, they can now proceed to clinical trials to gather more information concerning best dosage, how the drug is absorbed, distributed, metabolised, and excreted from the body, most appropriate way of administering the drug, its interaction with other drugs or treatments if administered together, its functionality in regard to gender, among others. Results obtained from clinical trials of this study are used to determine whether the drug should be restricted or prescribed to patients suffering from cancer. The information can also be used when conducting FDA drug review and FDA post-market drug safety monitoring at the time of approval.
References
Hidalgo et al., M. A.-R. (2014). Patient-derived xenograft models: an emerging platform for translational cancer research. Cancer discovery, 4(9), 998-1013.
Kumar, S. B. (2016). Preclinical screening methods in cancer. Indian journal of pharmacology, 48(5), 481.
Rubio-Perez et al., C. T.-P.-L.-B. (2015). In silico prescription of anticancer drugs to cohorts of 28 tumor types reveals targeting opportunities. Cancer cell, 27(3), 382-396.
