Chandigarh PGIMER to get India’s first dedicated animal house laboratory with advanced research facility

The facility will aim at testing new drugs and hardware that can potentially be used for the treatment of human disorders

The department of radiodiagnosis and imaging at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research is installing the country’s first digital subtraction angiography (DSA) facility dedicated to basic research in animals.

Professor MS Sandhu, head of the department of radiodiagnosis, said the facility will aim at testing new drugs and hardware that can potentially be used for the treatment of human disorders.

The DSA machine is a sophisticated digital X-ray emitting machine, which helps in the precise evaluation of vessels inside the human or animal body once an iodine-based contrast is injected into a specific vessel; it gives an exquisite display of the vascular system of that particular organ and the blood flow pattern.

Interventional radiologists use this machine for performing angiography of various organs of the body like the brain, liver, kidneys etc. The various treatments include opening up of blocked vessels, plugging of leaking vessels and delivering super-selectively chemotherapy or radiation to the tumor in the affected organ.

Before coming into the market for human use, the drugs and allied equipment have to undergo strict checks initially on animals, followed by human trials in various phases.

‘In sync with national policy of Make in India’

“Due to lack of appropriate testing facilities for newer devices aimed at interventional treatment of disorders in India, almost all of the certifications are done in the United States, Europe and/or East Asia. This often involves delays in treatment coming to Indian shores and is significantly expensive due to high import duties. With the setting up of this laboratory, there is a chance that these limitations may be superseded to some extent for some new drugs and equipment. The animal house DSA facility will also be in sync with the national policy of Make in India and it will be in the interest of patient care too,” said professor Sandhu.

Animal DSA installations need a sophisticated setup requiring, in addition to the DSA equipment, the entire infrastructure to house appropriate animals. Expert personnel and conditions are required to take suitable care of the animals and provide them fair living conditions in an ethical humane setup.

Subsequent administration of experimental drugs is undertaken or deployment of new devices is carried out like stents, coils, to understand the changes these lead to in the animals. Sometimes, for evaluating the results, angiographies have to be repeated after a certain interval. The results achieved aid to develop specific therapies for various vascular and parenchymal disorders in human beings. The animals who will be housed at PGIMER include sheep, rabbits, guinea pigs, mice, rats and hamsters.