Immortal cultures brew tomorrow's medicines

Researchers have found ways to make the cell cultures that produce anti-cancer drugs tougher and longer lasting. Their discoveries, at the University of Birmingham, England, will make it possible to produce larger quantities of monoclonal antibodies, beta interferon and other natural substances used to fight cancer and other prophylactics such as tissue plasminogen activator.

The research will also increase the scope for exploiting the unique properties of animal cell cultures for producing new drugs based on the human body's natural protective substances. The largest scale use of animal cell cultures is in the making of monoclonal antibodies. In order to produce these, the bodies of rats or mice are stimulated to produce a wanted antibody that may be required for research purposes, use in medical diagnosis, or to combat cancer or other diseases. The cells producing the wanted antibody are then removed from the animal and fused with cancer cells to create a hybrid cell culture, a hybridoma which is potentially immortal and will go on producing the antibody for as long as it is needed.

However, the immortality of animal cell hybridomas, and of other animal cell cultures used to produce proteins, is conditional on their being kept in stress-free conditions. They need constant care and attention to ensure that the nutrients, oxygen, pH, temperature and accumulating by-products in the bioreactors the cells are grown in, are kept at optimum levels. Otherwise the cells suffer from stress and are liable to die.