Multiple myeloma is still incurable, with 40 percent of diagnosed patients being alive 5 years after diagnosis. There is also a recognized unmet need in the treatment of relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma.
Pharmatest offers a systemic mouse model of multiple myeloma that closely mimics the clinical conditions of myeloma bone disease in patients. The model responds to clinically relevant treatment (bortezomib) and is suitable for testing the efficacy of drug compounds against multiple myeloma, and especially active myeloma, which is always characterized by the presence of osteolytic lesions. The model involves inoculation of mouse multiple myeloma cells into the tail vein of immunocompetent mice.
The animals are monitored by measuring lesion area by radiography and the amount of paraprotein IgG2b in serum, which will reveal the progression of the disease. Tumor area, bone area and osteoclast number can be determined by histology to reveal detailed information about effects on bone metastases.