Canadians for the Advancement of Health Research::. alternatives to animal research

Animal Model?

"If the trillions of dollars wasted on the animal model had, instead, gone to human-based alternatives, who knows what could have been accomplished by now?" ---Dr(s) C.Ray Greek and Jean Swingle Greek, Sacred Cows and Golden Geese: The Human Cost of Experiments on Animals. 2001

Kathleen Murray director of transgenesis services at Charles River Laboratories, the world's largest supplier of the lab animals has this to say about trangenic mice: "There is not a single genetically manipulated mouse that has been used yet to produce a drug that cures a disease. It will be a combination of multiple [mice] that all have data that complete the picture." The first part of her statement is a fact.

According to the definition of the Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources (ILAR) of the National Academy of Sciences, an Animal Model is

"a living organism in which normative biology or behavior can be studied, or in which a spontaneous or induced pathological process can be investigated, and in which the phenomenon in one or more respects resembles the same phenomenon in humans or other species of animal."

Dr. Richard Klausner of the National Cancer Institute thought about it twice and maybe more before making this statement:"The history of cancer research has been a history of curing cancer in mouse. We have cured mice of cancer for decades, and yet it simply didn't work." (2)
There is a vast catalogue of medicine, treatments and it might be useful to remember some of the drugs or therapies as some landmarks, which passed the animal tests but not the clinical trials and were withdrawn or modified because they were dangerous:

Thalidomide: teratogenic drug that caused over 10,000 birth defects
Diethylstilbestrol (was not clinically tested): synthetic estrogen causing cervical and breast cancer
Troglitazone: caused liver damage in 155 persons
Floxin: antibiotic that caused seizures and psychosis
Opren: used for arthritis but killed 66 people and over 3,500 cases of severe reactions were reported
Trial and errors of heart surgery and cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) corrected through human data (Mayo clinic 1951), to cite a few.

There were delayed drugs that did not pass the animal tests but were found beneficial to patients later:

Digitalis: used for heart failure
Steptomycin: a popular antibiotic
Corticosteroids: used in brain and spinal cord trauma
Penicillin: another antibiotic
Beta blockers used to decrease high blood pressure
Fluoride: used to delay dental decay (its current use is becoming controversial)

Prevention and precautionary measures are better than a cure but do not benefit to the drug industry. There are important epidemiological contributions to remember:

Link between spina bifida and acid folic deficiency
Link between cancer and smoking, cardiovascular diseases and poor dietary habits
Occupational chemical exposure and cancers
High blood pressure and stroke
AIDS transmission

Autopsy and post mortem human tissue collection and biopsies are invaluable approaches:

Studies of misdiagnosed medications
Human studies of head injury, heart failures and hepatitis
Chemotherapy with anti-cancer drugs and carcinogenic studies based on in vitro screening
In vitro studies of human cells and tissues.

The National Cancer Institute does not rely any longer solely on animal tests, this institution tested 40,000 chemicals on lab animals and not a single anti tumor drug emerged from this work. This cost millions of tax dollars.
The Environmental Protection Agency does not rely solely on animal tests anymore. As well, the European government is reforming its chemical testing policy.
There are many drugs or therapies that did not go through pre-clinical research on animals and new knowledge was obtained initially from human studies:

Aspirin: reduces the risk of coronary diseases by half and painkiller
Cardiac catheterization (Forssmann 1924)
Quinine and understanding of malaria (Manson 1844)
X-rays (Rontgen 1895)
Anesthesia (self-experiments Davis 1818)
Antisepsis (Lister 1865)
Cocaine and morphine (self-experiments Mantegazza 1859)
Nutrition and fasting (self-experiment Rubner 1876 and Dewey 1878)
Non-infectious nature of Pellagra (vitamin deficiency- Goldberger 1914)
Drug AZT (previously used in cancer research) for the treatment of AIDS
Diuretic treatment of hypertension by thiazides
Curare
Prednisone, actinomycin D, nitrogen compounds as anti-cancer drugs
Antidepressants iproniazid that gave the basis to monoamine oxide inhibitors
Grapefruit action on lowering the efficient dose of certain drugs
Lidocaine discovered accidentally and used for ventricular dysrhytmias
Angioplasty (Tested later on animals without further findings)
Anastomosis perfected on cadavers and based on Murphy's initial experiments on humans (Carrel 1912 Nobel Prize)
Heparin and citrate anti-coagulants
Electron microscopy of HIV structure
Lack of gamma-globulin linked to chronic diseases and immune system (Good 1952)
Human Genome project and epidemiological genetics
Virtually anything we know about AIDS and human cancer
High intake of fruits, nuts, grains and vegetables, reduced intake of meat, moderate vine consumption, physical exercise, smoking-free life and low stress and their link to better health

Animal Model? "If the trillions of dollars wasted on the animal model had, instead, gone to human-based alternatives, who knows what could have been accomplished by now?" ---Dr(s) C.Ray Greek and Jean Swingle Greek, Sacred Cows and Golden Geese: The Human Cost of Experiments on Animals. 2001

Animal Model?

"If the trillions of dollars wasted on the animal model had, instead, gone to human-based alternatives, who knows what could have been accomplished by now?" ---Dr(s) C.Ray Greek and Jean Swingle Greek, Sacred Cows and Golden Geese: The Human Cost of Experiments on Animals. 2001