Application of Cell Culture Models in Studying Viral Diseases (SARS, H1N1 Flu, MERS, COVID-19): A Review

Abstract

The emergence of recent viral outbreaks, especially the COVID-19 pandemic, and the resulting global mortality and damage has created an urgent need to accelerate the identification, prevention, and treatment of these viral diseases. Due to the limitations in the use of humans, and animal models in terms of time, costs, metabolism differences and ethical issues, in vitro models have become essential in virology research. In the present review, we collected the application of several used cell culture models in studies on four pathogenic viruses - severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), influenza A virus (H1N1), middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). These models included, 2D and 3D cell culture (organoids, microfluidic-chips, and bioprinted models). A collection of existing research on these viruses can help fight against the SARS-CoV-2 virus and speed it up against future emerging viruses. Moreover, it can show the shortcomings of in vitro models in virology studies that have been performed to date and provide researchers with new ideas for developing models that are more efficient to deal with similar viral outbreaks.

Antitrypanosomal Activity of 1,2,3-Triazole-Based Hybrids Evaluated Using In Vitro Preclinical Translational Models

“…The 3D culture model has attracted attention in the development of new drugs and vaccines for infectious diseases [ 58 ]. This tool has allowed advances in the discovery of antimicrobial [ 59 , 60 ] and antiparasitic drugs, but it has been rarely used in Chagas disease drug screening. H9c2 cardiomyoblast 3D spheroids were recently used to evaluate the anti- T. cruzi effect of nucleoside analogs, showing potent activity against intracellular amastigotes [ 61 ].…”

“…The 3D culture model has attracted attention in the development of new drugs and vaccines for infectious diseases [58]. This tool has allowed advances in the discovery of antimicrobial [59,60] and Our data reinforce using 3D primary cardiac microtissue as a suitable model to assess drug efficacy, which can improve the translation potential for anti-T. cruzi drugs, reducing gaps between in vitro and in vivo models. Efficient preclinical screening is essential to avoid therapeutic failures in clinical development and the use of 3D culture models has been widely encouraged to accurately screen candidate drugs [57].…”