ABSTRACT
The increased prominence of immunotherapies and the targeting of inflammatory diseases has amplified the demand, interest, and thereby efforts to incorporate immune components when developing and utilizing complex in vitro models (CIVMs) with improved translational relevance. In the first part of the book chapter, we review and discuss the reasons behind the high attrition rates in drug discovery, opportunities to improve the drug discovery process by incorporating CIVMs with an immune component plus explain the design criteria such as cell requirements, tissue architecture and biological readouts needed for complex in vitro models for development and implementation in the drug discovery process. There is a focus on current efforts and future directions of enhanced CIVMs with immune components for oncology, immune-inflammation diseases (i.e., Inflammatory bowel disorder) and safety (i.e., liver, gut and absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME)/pharmacokinetics (PK)). The last section explores the prospect to use immune system models and the future incorporation with disease or healthy models in drug development. Ultimately increased utilization of human-relevant CIVMs with an integrated immune component for safety and efficacy testing should in the long-term help reduce the clinical attrition rate.
