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Surprise! Mice are not people...

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 9:36 am
by MarkLavelle
Genomic responses in mouse models poorly mimic human inflammatory diseases
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/02/07/1222878110
Abstract

A cornerstone of modern biomedical research is the use of mouse models to explore basic pathophysiological mechanisms, evaluate new therapeutic approaches, and make go or no-go decisions to carry new drug candidates forward into clinical trials. Systematic studies evaluating how well murine models mimic human inflammatory diseases are nonexistent. Here, we show that, although acute inflammatory stresses from different etiologies result in highly similar genomic responses in humans, the responses in corresponding mouse models correlate poorly with the human conditions and also, one another.
The research is about non-neurological conditions (sepsis, burns and trauma), but the point seems to be that the human immune systems is pretty drastically different from mice. With all DMD research starting from mouse models, I guess it's not too surprising that their results are so weak...

Re: Surprise! Mice are not people...

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 5:40 pm
by lyndacarol
Very good information, Mark!

Re: Surprise! Mice are not people...

Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 6:20 pm
by MarkLavelle
This NYTimes article pointed me there: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/scien ... ef=science

The best line:
Dr. Davis said, reviewers did not point out scientific errors. Instead, he said, “the most common response was, ‘It has to be wrong. I don’t know why it is wrong, but it has to be wrong.’ ”