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British research organization supports non-animal cancer research in Freiburg

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A research group from the University Medical Center Freiburg has received a million-euro funding from the British research organization NC3R. In the funded project, an animal-free safety assessment for cell-based cancer therapies is to be developed. The German association Doctors Against Animal Experiments explicitly welcomes the funding of the project. At the same time, the association criticizes that such innovative projects are hardly funded in Germany and instead, a large portion of public funding is still invested in outdated and misleading animal experiments.

The British National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement, and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3R) supports projects aimed at reducing animal experimentation. This year, the research group led by Prof. Toni Cathomen from the Institute for Transfusion Medicine and Gene Therapy at the University Medical Center Freiburg is receiving funding of £1 million – approximately €1.17 million – from the NC3R. The funding supports a project in which the safety of CAR-T cell therapy in cancer treatment will be evaluated without the use of animals (1).

In Germany, two forms of CAR-T cell therapy for treating certain types of blood and lymph node cancer have already been approved (2) and are used in patients where conventional chemotherapy is not effective. In CAR-T cell therapy, certain immune cells - T cells - are isolated from the blood of cancer patients and genetically modified in the laboratory to attack and ideally destroy cancer cells in the patient's body. However, in addition to this desired effect, CAR-T cell therapy can also cause side effects. In the worst case, the CAR-T cells - intended to fight cancer - can themselves cause tumors.

For assessing such side effects, animal experiments are entirely unsuitable. They are not only invasive, thus particularly burdensome for the animals, but also lengthy (3), as tumor development is a slow process. Moreover, species differences mean that the results of such experiments can not be extrapolated to humans. This is even more true for modern immunotherapies such as CAR-T cell therapy, as the immune system of mice and other animals differs significantly from that of humans. Instead, the Freiburg project will use artificial intelligence to identify biomarkers for the safety assessment of CAR-T cell therapy. Initial results are expected in 2 years (3).

"We explicitly welcome the funding of this project for the development of an animal-free safety assessment of CAR-T cell therapy," says Dr. Johanna Walter, Scientific Officer at Doctors Against Animal Experiments. "However, it is noteworthy that such funding now comes from the United Kingdom and not from Germany," Walter continues. Doctors Against Animal Experiments has been criticizing for years that in Germany, over 99% of public funding goes into projects involving animal experiments, with less than 1% dedicated to the development of modern animal-free methods (4). "In this context, the generous funding from the United Kingdom almost seems like foreign aid. It is past due for Germany to finally redistribute funding in favor of innovative and animal-free research," Walter points out.

Doctors Against Animal Experiments advocates for modern and animal-free research and awards the Herbert Stiller Prize to promote human-based research (5). In its globally unique and freely accessible NAT database, the association publishes animal-free methods for biomedical research (6).

References

  1. £1M awarded to replace animal studies and improve the safety assessment of cell therapies, NC3R press release, 24.01.2024 https://nc3rs.org.uk/crackit/news/ps1m-awarded-replace-animal-studies-and-improve-safety-assessment-cell-therapies
  2. Fragen und Antworten zur CAR-T-Zell-Therapie. Deutsche Krebsgesellschaft, 01.04.2021 https://www.krebsgesellschaft.de/onko-internetportal/basis-informationen-krebs/krebsarten/non-hodgkin-lymphome/car-t-zell-therapie-wichtige-fragen-antworten.html
  3. Eine Million Euro für tierfreie Krebsforschung, Press release of the University Medical Center Freiburg, 05.02.2024 https://www.uniklinik-freiburg.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/detailansicht/4095-eine-million-euro-fuer-tierfreie-krebsforschung.html
  4. Financial support for animal experiments and 3Rs research in Germany. Doctors Against Animal Experiments, 23.01.2024 https://www.aerzte-gegen-tierversuche.de/en/basic-infos/animal-experiments/statistics/financial-support-for-animal-experiments-and-3rs-research-in-germany
  5. Herbert Stiller Research Grant 2023. Doctors Against Animal Experiments, 31.01.2024 https://www.aerzte-gegen-tierversuche.de/en/specific-infos/alternatives/research-prizes/herbert-stiller-research-grant-2023-call-for-applications
  6. NAT database https://nat-database.org/