Recent organ-on-a-chip advances toward drug toxicity testing

Organ-on-a-chip systems integrate microengineering, microfluidics, and biomimetic principles to create bionic systems for organ-level physiological simulation, disease research, and drug screening. Despite the limitations of cell sources, novel materials, and high-sensitivity detection equipment, various organ-on-a-chip systems have been developed for the evaluation of drug toxicity in vitro. They show an unparalleled capacity to bridge the gap between preclinical and clinical outcomes, as well as improve the predictability of drug toxicity. In this review, we introduce some recent advances in novel organ-on-a-chip systems that primarily target drug toxicity testing. Further, we discuss the current status of heart-, liver-, kidney-, brain-, and multi-organ-on-a-chip systems for drug assessment, as well as the challenges and future directions that need to be pursued.