The National Laboratory Animal Center yesterday unveiled a transgenic mouse species for early detection of drug-induced toxicity in the kidneys in a bid to help drugmakers reduce the toxicity of medicines at early stages of development.
While drugs are required to pass safety tests before entering the market, about 2 to 3 percent of newly approved drugs are recalled annually due to toxicity that is not detected previously, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) Hospital nephrologist Chiou Yuan-yow (邱元佑) told a news conference in Taipei.
While high concentrations of metabolic waste products, such as creatinine and blood urea nitrogen, suggest the existence kidney disease, their concentrations can be stabilized with only 50 percent of the normal kidney function, meaning the substances are not reliable indicators of earlier kidney problems, said Chiou, also a researcher at the center.
Photo courtesy of the National Applied Research Laboratories
Urine protein is another indicator of kidney disease, but its concentration is likely affected by other dietary factors, he added.
While some international pharmaceutical firms had worked with the US, the EU and Japan to develop a method of using seven urine proteins to detect nephrotoxicity, each protein requires a testing reagent, and the method cannot entirely rule out nephrotoxicity, he said.
In an effort to create a more efficient tool to test nephrotoxicity, Chiou worked with researchers at the center and the university to develop a transgenic mouse species.
He first identified a biomarker named myo-inositol oxygenase (MIOX), an enzyme that is specific to the kidney and released from cells into serum and urine within 24 hours of kidney damage, he said.
As MIOX is not easily detected, the team utilized the center’s genetic modification techniques to add a luminescent enzyme called nanoluciferase (NanoLu) to the mice’s genes and enlarge its expressions, he said.
When a subject’s kidney was damaged, the nanoluciferase would be released into cells and enter serum or urine, allowing researchers to more clearly observe kidney damage, he said.
Over the past two years, the team has experimented with more than 100 mice to develop the transgenic species, Chiou said, adding that the new species is called MIOX-NanoLu transgenic mouse.
Pharmaceutical firms and researchers can use the mice as testing platforms to prevent their products from damaging the kidneys, he said.
The team published their findings in the journal Scientific Reports in August.
Ideally, the transgenic mice would act like the Taoist deity Shennong (神農, God of Herbs), who knows the toxicity of herbs by tasting them, center Director-General Genie Chin (秦咸靜) said.
The mice’s genetic material have been preserved at the center’s freezers, and it can breed the mice upon request, she said.
The animal center is one of the National Applied Research Laboratories’ eight centers.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the