But there are ways it can help improve that process, and it revolves around the collaborative nature of One Health, he said. cheryl londonAssociate Dean of Research, Cummings School.
as it is nowThere is something truly broken in the paradigm of drug development, at least in part due to our very heavy reliance on rodent models. , she noted that the disease accelerates in laboratory mice, unlike the disease in humans, which progresses over time. And then there are other factors. “For example, mice don’t vomit,” she noted, so it’s difficult to pinpoint the side effects of a particular drug that can occur in humans.
According to her, it turns out there are better models. Many of us have dogs and cats as pets. They naturally develop many of the same ailments that we do, offering opportunities to try new and different treatments, potentially helping pets developing ailments, and offering lessons for human health. The School is a leader in that effort, said London, Ann Engen and Dusty Professor of Comparative Oncology at the Cummings School.
For example, dogs “are excellent models for osteosarcoma and lymphoma, but cats, like humans, suffer from asthma. We also see many cardiovascular diseases that mimic human disease,” said London. “For example, there is a disease called arrhythmic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) that occurs in boxer dogs. This syndrome, which causes acute cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death, is known to be genetically driven in this breed.” ARVC also occurs in humans, with about 50% of cases also having an underlying genetic cause, and several chemotherapeutic agents that have accurately modeled their effects in human cancer patients. Cardiotoxicity in dogs due to
Her Royal Highness Princess Chulabhorn of Thailand meets with President Anthony of Monaco at the Health Summit.Photo: Jenna Shadd
Through clinical trials in companion animals, “we are able to conduct a number of advanced studies in patient populations, giving pet owners access to advanced, cutting-edge treatments that are not normally available to them.” Veterinary researchers will then share information about expected and unanticipated side effects of the new combination therapy with researchers working on the human side to “help inform decisions about future treatments.” I hope that’.
In many endeavors, Cummings School researchers, working with interdisciplinary and multi-institutional teams, Integrated Canine Data Commonsa genomics repository of canine tumor genomics that links directly to human cancer genomics National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Data Commonsshe said.
Researchers at the Cummings School, in collaboration with researchers at Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University School of Medicine, received a grant from NCI to better understand the causes of these side effects and develop more effective treatments. We have studied cardiovascular toxicity in mice, dogs, and humans. How to prevent their development, London said. “This is truly a One Health collaboration,” she said.
Pandemic past and future
Panelists also talked about lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and what they should be doing now to prepare for other pandemics. Janet WoodcockThe FDA’s Deputy Chief of Staff spoke about her work on Operation Warp Speed and work on developing a vaccine for the COVID-19 virus. “The way we do it now is not the way we need to do it in the future,” she said.
She added that she thinks: biologics It may be the fastest we can intervene,” she said. “But we don’t have the capacity to respond, scale up, and treat citizens around the world.”
Jonathan RanstadlerProfessor and Chair The Cummings School of Infectious Diseases and Global Health spoke about the work he and his colleagues are doing to track potentially emerging diseases in animals, such as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), among others.
HPAI is part of a similar group of viruses that have entered North America and are probably spread by wild birds. At first it primarily affected gulls and raptors, but then it affected other bird populations, including terns and ducks, before returning to gulls and raptors again. It is spreading. Runstadler’s group focused on that effect. Seal populations in northeastern North America.
He said there was a major stranding event for seals in the area in the summer of 2022 as they were affected by the virus. “We were able to sequence a number of viruses that originated in both birds and seals,” he said. “What is of concern is the adaptation that has occurred to the virus within the seal host.”
As they continue that work, what they are discovering about the virus is that it is “feeding treatments and vaccine development efforts for this virus, both here in the Northeast and throughout the United States. Hopefully in a pandemic. But be prepared for a pandemic,” Runstadler said.
The challenges facing the human and animal fields “really aren’t that different,” says Ellen Hart, director of the FDA’s Office of Veterinary Medicine. “Both will benefit from increased innovation and new product development. Both will benefit from a continued focus on global harmonization and standardization efforts. will benefit from a focus on health equity, including communication and understanding that considers their relationship with animals.”
“The magic of One Health,” Hart added.