Pre-clinical models crucial for effective COVID-19 treatments

Centenary Institute researchers have outlined the crucial importance of diverse animal, cell and tissue model usage in the development of effective COVID-19 treatments and medications.

In a review publication published in the prestigious journal ‘Mucosal Immunology’, the paper authors noted that the scientific and clinical community was racing to define and develop effective preventions and treatments. However, that these efforts were being hampered by  competing interests, small scale programs and a lack of defined patient cohorts and defined readouts.

“What is needed now is head-to-head comparison of existing drugs, testing of safety including in the background of predisposing chronic diseases, and the development of new and targeted preventions and treatments,” said Professor Phil Hansbro, Director of the Centenary UTS Centre for Inflammation and senior author of the publication.

“This is most efficiently achieved using representative animal models of primary infection including in the background of chronic disease with validation of findings in primary human cells and tissues,” he said.

“Interrogation of representative models lets us define cause and effect and to explain mechanisms of pathogenesis that are then able to be confirmed and translated in human studies,” said Centenary Institute researcher Dr Matt Johansen, the review paper’s lead author.

The paper can be accessed here.

More information on the Centenary UTS Centre for Inflammation can be found here.