This document discusses concepts of in-vitro screening as an alternative to animal testing. It describes some of the major alternatives like cell culture techniques and computer simulation that aim to replace, reduce or refine animal testing. Specifically, it provides examples of how cell cultures have been developed as alternatives for tasks like monoclonal antibody production and toxicity testing. It also discusses the "Three Rs" framework of replacing, reducing and refining animal use in testing.

1. “Concepts of in-vitroscreening”
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Submitted To- Presented By-
Mrs. Jyothi Y. Bhavya Rewari
Asst. Proff., Dept. of Pharmacology M.Pharm, Ist year, Pharmacology
Krupanidhi College of Pharmacy, Bangalore

2.  Introduction
 Other techniques
 The “Three Rs“
 Cell cultures
 Computer simulation
 Conclusion
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3.  Most scientists and governments say they
agree that animal testing should cause as
little suffering as possible, and that
alternatives to animal testing need to be
developed
 Two major alternatives to in vivo animal
testing are in vitro cell culture techniques and
in silico computer simulation
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4.  Biotechnology methods
 Tissue culture technique
 Fibroblast culture
 Tissue slices
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7.  Some claim they are not true alternatives
since simulations use data from prior animal
experiments and cultured cells often require
animal derived products
 Others say that they cannot replace animals
completely as they are unlikely to ever
provide enough information about the
complex interactions of living systems
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8.  Other alternatives involve the use of humans
for skin irritancy tests and donated human
blood for pyrogenicity studies
 Another alternative is so-called microdosing,
in which the basic behaviour of drugs is
assessed using human volunteers receiving
doses well below those expected to produce
whole-body effects
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9.  Replacement refers to the preferred use of non-
animal methods over animal methods whenever
it is possible to achieve the same scientific aim
 Reduction refers to methods that enable
researchers to obtain comparable levels of
information from fewer animals, or to obtain
more information from the same number of
animals
 Refinement refers to methods that alleviate or
minimize potential pain, suffering or distress,
and enhance animal welfare for the animals still
used
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11.  The concept of the “Three Rs”, replace,
reduce and refine; was put forward by Russell
and Burch in their 1959 ‘The Principles of
Human ExperimentalTechnique’
 Refinement: The use of analgesics and
analgesia, the use of remote telemetry to
increase the quality and quantity of data
gathered and human endpoints for the
animals are examples of refinements
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12.  Reduction: Reduction in numbers of animals
used in toxicology testing
 Replacement: Alternatives such as in vitro,
cell culture, tissue culture, models,
simulations, etc. are examples of
replacement
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13.  Cell culture is currently the most successful,
and promising, alternative to animal use
 For example, cultured cells have been
developed to create monoclonal antibodies,
prior to this production required animals to
undergo a procedure likely to cause pain and
distress
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14. Skin corrosion
 Human skin equivalent tests can be used to
replace animal-based corrosive studies
 Two products, EpiDerm and EpiSkin are
derived from human skin cells which have
been cultured to produce a model of human
skin
 These methods are currently accepted
replacements in Canada and the European
Union
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15. Skin absorption
 Several tissue culture methods which
measure the rate of chemical absorption by
the skin have been approved by the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD), although they have
not yet been approved as a replacement in
the US
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16. Phototoxicity
 Phototoxicity is a rash, swelling or
inflammation, like a severe sunburn, caused
by exposure to light following exposure to a
chemical
 The 3T3 Neutral Red Uptake (NRU)
Phototoxicity Test, approved by the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD), detects the viability of
3T3 cells after exposure to a chemical in the
presence or absence of light
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17.  Skin irritation
A skinpatch test has been designed and is used
in Canada to measure development of rashes,
inflammation, swelling or abnormal tissue
growth on human volunteers
 Pyrogenicity
Pyrogens are most often pharmaceutical
products or intravenous drugs that may cause
inflammation or fever when they interact with
immune system cells. This interaction can be
quickly and accurately tested in vitro using
donated human blood.
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18.  Modular immune in vitro construct
The MIMIC or modular immune in vitro
construct uses human cells to create a model
of the human immune system on which the
efficacy of new vaccines and other
compounds may be tested, replacing some
steps of the vaccine development process
that would otherwise be performed on
animals
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20.  Examples of computer simulations available
include models of diabetes, asthma and drug
absorption
 Computer operated mannequins, also known
as crash test dummies, complete with
internal sensors and video, have replaced live
animal trauma testing for automobile crash
testing
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21.  The first of these was “Sierra Sam” built in
1949 by Alderson Research Labs (ARL) Sierra
Engineering
 Prior to this, live pigs were used as test
subjects for crash testing
 Computer models have been constructed to
model human metabolism, to study plaque
build-up and cardiovascular risk and to
evaluate toxicity of drugs
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