squiffy2
09-04-2007, 02:15 AM
A Dr Hadwen Trust-funded pilot study at Imperial College, London, is investigating whether the application of a new molecular technique could replace animal experiments in Multiple Sclerosis (MS) research. MS is a debilitating disease of the nervous system, affecting around 2.5 million people worldwide and with currently no cure. Animal experiments on guinea pigs, rabbits, monkeys and rodents have been of dubious value, artificially creating a condition that differs markedly from true MS.
Decades of animal experiments for MS have involved artificially inducing a condition called Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis (EAE) in animals in the hope of creating a ‘model’ of human MS. The animals suffer inflammation and damage to the nervous system resulting in paralysis, and in more recent examples EAE has also been studied in genetically modified mice, either ‘humanised’ by adding human genes or with genes ‘knocked out’.
These experiments not only cause animal suffering, but are also of questionable relevance to MS patients. The differences between human MS and EAE are significant, and despite more than 10,000 published experiments on animals with EAE, the human disease remains poorly understood, treatments are very limited and a cure remains elusive. Even worse, some neurology experts fear that reliance on the animal model has delayed MS research by years. For the sake of animals and people, more advanced non-animal approaches to studying MS are urgently needed.........................
For the full report please go to MSRC: MS Research News : New Discoveries : RNA 'Knockdown' (http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=show&pageid=2213)
Decades of animal experiments for MS have involved artificially inducing a condition called Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis (EAE) in animals in the hope of creating a ‘model’ of human MS. The animals suffer inflammation and damage to the nervous system resulting in paralysis, and in more recent examples EAE has also been studied in genetically modified mice, either ‘humanised’ by adding human genes or with genes ‘knocked out’.
These experiments not only cause animal suffering, but are also of questionable relevance to MS patients. The differences between human MS and EAE are significant, and despite more than 10,000 published experiments on animals with EAE, the human disease remains poorly understood, treatments are very limited and a cure remains elusive. Even worse, some neurology experts fear that reliance on the animal model has delayed MS research by years. For the sake of animals and people, more advanced non-animal approaches to studying MS are urgently needed.........................
For the full report please go to MSRC: MS Research News : New Discoveries : RNA 'Knockdown' (http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=show&pageid=2213)