In vivo

Summary

Studies that are in vivo (Latin for "within the living"; often not italicized in English[1][2][3]) are those in which the effects of various biological entities are tested on whole, living organisms or cells, usually animals, including humans, and plants, as opposed to a tissue extract or dead organism. This is not to be confused with experiments done in vitro ("within the glass"), i.e., in a laboratory environment using test tubes, Petri dishes, etc. Examples of investigations in vivo include: the pathogenesis of disease by comparing the effects of bacterial infection with the effects of purified bacterial toxins; the development of non-antibiotics, antiviral drugs, and new drugs generally; and new surgical procedures. Consequently, animal testing and clinical trials are major elements of in vivo research. In vivo testing is often employed over in vitro because it is better suited for observing the overall effects of an experiment on a living subject. In drug discovery, for example, verification of efficacy in vivo is crucial, because in vitro assays can sometimes yield misleading results with drug candidate molecules that are irrelevant in vivo (e.g., because such molecules cannot reach their site of in vivo action, for example as a result of rapid catabolism in the liver).[4]

The English microbiologist Professor Harry Smith and his colleagues in the mid-1950s found that sterile filtrates of serum from animals infected with Bacillus anthracis were lethal for other animals, whereas extracts of culture fluid from the same organism grown in vitro were not. This discovery of anthrax toxin through the use of in vivo experiments had a major impact on studies of the pathogenesis of infectious disease.

The maxim in vivo veritas ("in a living thing [there is] truth")[5] is a play on in vino veritas, ("in wine [there is] truth"), a well-known proverb.

In vivo vs. ex vivo research edit

In microbiology, in vivo is often used to refer to experimentation done in a whole organism, rather than in live isolated cells, for example, cultured cells derived from biopsies. In this situation, the more specific term is ex vivo. Once cells are disrupted and individual parts are tested or analyzed, this is known as in vitro.[citation needed]

Methods of use edit

According to Christopher Lipinski and Andrew Hopkins, "Whether the aim is to discover drugs or to gain knowledge of biological systems, the nature and properties of a chemical tool cannot be considered independently of the system it is to be tested in. Compounds that bind to isolated recombinant proteins are one thing; chemical tools that can perturb cell function another; and pharmacological agents that can be tolerated by a live organism and perturb its systems are yet another. If it were simple to ascertain the properties required to develop a lead discovered in vitro to one that is active in vivo, drug discovery would be as reliable as drug manufacturing."[6] Studies on In vivo behavior, determined the formulations of set specific drugs and their habits in a Biorelevant (or Biological relevance) medium.[7]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, archived from the original on 2020-10-10, retrieved 2014-04-20.
  2. ^ Iverson C, Flanagin A, Fontanarosa PB, Glass RM, Gregoline B, Lurie SJ, Meyer HS, Winker MA, Young RK, eds. (2007). "12.1.1 Use of Italics". AMA Manual of Style (10th ed.). Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-517633-9.
  3. ^ American Psychological Association (2010), "4.21 Use of Italics", The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.), Washington, DC: APA, ISBN 978-1-4338-0562-2
  4. ^ Atanasov AG, Waltenberger B, Pferschy-Wenzig EM, Linder T, Wawrosch C, Uhrin P, et al. (December 2015). "Discovery and resupply of pharmacologically active plant-derived natural products: A review". Biotechnology Advances. 33 (8): 1582–1614. doi:10.1016/j.biotechadv.2015.08.001. PMC 4748402. PMID 26281720.
  5. ^ "Life Science Technologies, Cell Signaling: In Vivo Veritas". Science Magazine. 2007. doi:10.1126/science.316.5832.1763. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
  6. ^ Lipinski C, Hopkins A (December 2004). "Navigating chemical space for biology and medicine". Nature. 432 (7019): 855–61. Bibcode:2004Natur.432..855L. doi:10.1038/nature03193. PMID 15602551. S2CID 4416216.
  7. ^ Klein S (September 2010). "The use of biorelevant dissolution media to forecast the in vivo performance of a drug". The AAPS Journal. 12 (3): 397–406. doi:10.1208/s12248-010-9203-3. PMC 2895438. PMID 20458565.