Researchers from National Cancer Institute, US is to start testing their drug efficacy trial on dogs as the researchers feel that drug metabolize, enzyme kinetics and drug action mechanisms in dogs are similar to humans than that of rodents
Researchers from National Cancer Institute, US is to start testing their drug efficacy trial on dogs as the researchers feel that drug metabolize, enzyme kinetics and drug action mechanisms in dogs are similar to humans than that of rodents.
Dr. Chand Khanna, Veterinary Oncologist said, “It turns out that many cancers, such as lymphoma, melanoma and osteosarcoma, are well represented in dogs and the dogs will help us prioritize the agents that go into human clinical trials and help make those trials more efficient”.The enzyme systems and kinetics pathway in humans are similar in dogs which make the researchers measure the enzyme effect on substrates and measure the endpoint of the reactions in an easier way as metabolize rate of drugs in humans and dogs are similar. But researchers have to test the drug toxicity of their new cancer drugs in rodents before testing the drug on dogs.
Source: Nature Medicine.