The SIMPATHIC Consortium led by Amsterdam UMC and Radboudumc devised a new way to accelerate the use of existing medicines for patients with rare neurological disorders.
They do this by testing the drugs in cultured human nerve cells. Animal testing is usually not necessary for this. The researchers receive a grant of 8.8 million euros from the Horizon Europe program for the further development of this new approach.
The researchers will use new technology to test the effectiveness of existing medicines in patients with a neurological disorder. For this they only need a tube of blood or a very small piece of skin from the patient. It contains stem cells, which the researchers grow into nerve cells. The researchers then test how the cultured nerve cells respond to all kinds of existing medicines.
If the researchers see a positive effect of a drug on the nerve cells, they immediately set up a scientific study in a group of patients with the same symptoms. These can be people with different ailments. Because existing medicines have already been tested in humans, animal testing is often not necessary. This speeds up the use of medicines in new applications enormously and reduces the costs of research.
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