NYTimes Article: Mice Fall Short as Test Subjects...

[ThisIsMA]

Here is a very interesting article from the New York Times. It makes me wonder if MS should be added to the list of diseases that the mouse model does not work for. In the almost 4 years since I've been diagnosed I've read dozens of studies that show mice can be cured of the mouse equivalent of MS, by substances that don't have that effect in people. This article makes a compelling argument for why that type of situation in another disease process occurs:

Mice Fall Short as Test Subjects for Humans’ Deadly Ills

By GINA KOLATA
Published: February 11, 2013

For decades, mice have been the species of choice in the study of human diseases. But now, researchers report evidence that the mouse model has been totally misleading for at least three major killers — sepsis, burns and trauma. As a result, years and billions of dollars have been wasted following false leads, they say.

The study’s findings do not mean that mice are useless models for all human diseases. But, its authors said, they do raise troubling questions about diseases like the ones in the study that involve the immune system, including cancer and heart disease.

Read the entire article at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/scien ... -says.html

Mary Ann

[Cece]

The group had tried to publish its findings in several papers. One objection, Dr. Davis said, was that the researchers had not shown the same gene response had happened in mice.

“They were so used to doing mouse studies that they thought that was how you validate things,” he said. “They are so ingrained in trying to cure mice that they forget we are trying to cure humans.”

“That started us thinking,” he continued. “Is it the same in the mouse or not?”

The group decided to look, expecting to find some similarities. But when the data were analyzed, there were none at all.

Very similar to when Dr. Zamboni was asked, back in 2009, why he had not investigated these veins in mice.
I am not a mouse doctor, he said.
And then when CCSVI was investigated in mice, they ligated the wrong veins. D'oh! Better luck with the pigs. (Haacke's colleagues are doing pigs.)