Food and Drug Administration and National Institute of Health organized a joint Workshop On reduced animal testing in research on 7 July, announced that “NIH will no longer look for proposals specifically for the animal model.”
This change follows FDAPlanTo phase the requirement for animal testing of drugs, which marks the beginning of aOverall shiftWhat new leadership away from animal researchReferences to“More effective, human-circulated methods.”
This means that the FDA intends to allow new drugs to be tested in people without pre -animal tests, and that NIH will restrict funds for research that leads to transformational medical discoveries.
As a biomedical researcher using mouse models and other devices to better understand and treat human disease, I am deeply concerned. Eliminating animal testing will reduce our drug supply and will set us back to groundbreaking biomedical discoveries from decades.
Let’s first see on drug regulation. Identification of potential new remedies depends more on the knowledge obtained from pre -of pre -pregnant study in animals. These studies form the basis of biological discovery before assessing the relevance, safety and potential efficacy of a drug, before it is given to humans anytime.
Without this important step, it would be more difficult to start searching for new drugs and their effects will be very less predicated. Drugs run in clinical testing only after these initial studies – to include progressively large human colleagues in three stages before approval.
Animal models are an important component of biomedical research as they allow us to test unexpected biological effects between different organs and systems within a living body.
For example, a cancer drug can successfully kill tumor cells in a dish, but in an entire organism, this may be the reason. Unprocessed heart damage Or trigger a harmful immune response that affects other organs. An animal test is the closest possible test of the utility and safety of any drug before being given to humans. If drug developers are allowed to leave the step, it would mean that, in the near future, the first living body will have a new drug at any time.
Researchers use animals to understand diseases and develop new treatments completely. The laboratory mice, the most commonly used animal model, is compared to Rosetta Stone of Immunology. Most of what we know about the immune system is understood through them.
Think about immunotherapy for cancer, immunospective drugs for autoimmune conditions, or allergies and treatment for infectious diseases. None of these life -saving drugs will be present in animal models today without basic research of decades.
About half NIH-funded grants include animal use. So why will the world’s largest public biomedical research decide to make such rigorous changes? The argument is that new human-based approaches can serve as a better option. These include laboratory-developed human models, computational equipment and other approaches. And these can definitely complement animal models, as my colleagues and I have Work for a long timeBut behaving them as viable replacement premature time.
One of the main criticisms of animal research is that conclusions do not always translate directly into humans. This is true, but there is Small evidence The proposed options achieve more reliable or future proclaiming results.
Instead of leaving animal research, we should focus on improving existing models to better reflect human biology.
And it is true that some mice require improvement. For example, in 2006, a new drug that works on immune cells, undergoes animal tests and reached humans. Clinical test Step, yet it left six healthy volunteers in critical condition.
Later researcher Understand That laboratory mice had a less active immune system than adult humans, because Unusual clean environment The lab prevented proper immune growth. (Gynenu is actually necessary in teaching the immune system how to protect us.)
Researchers confirmed that connecting mice to a pet-store (living under less sterile and more natural conditions with diverse germs) was added to the same cage in the same cages because laboratory rats helped subsequent immune systems more closely to humans.
When researchers tested the same drug from 2006 testing in mice with more natural immune systems, theyfoundThat mice experienced similar inflammatory complications. Recently, researchers using such mice were also able to understand better reasons.Cancer immunotherapy side effects,
And for many others, work is going on using these better micestudiesWhich can carry forward human health.
This discovery helped launch an entire new area, in which researchers themselves are working to improve mouse models and accelerate biomedical discoveries.
After the announcement, people for moral treatment of animalscalledIt is a “groundbreaking trick” that “is” an important first step to modernize science and spare millions of animals to millions of animals in unhappy life and laboratories. “
But it is possible to take care of animals morally without eliminating their scientific use. In fact, NIH has back animal welfare policies back1900s,
And for at least a decade, all grant proposals have had to consider alternative approaches, detailed protocols to reduce scientific justification and crisis of animal use. Protocols of institutions are also reviewed regularly for recognition.
We still need animal testing to find new remedies. Take the story of one week baby KJ in the news In May. KJ was born with a serious genetic disorder that kills almost half -affected children in early life. But, through widespread Medical effortWhich included the use of a mouse model model modified with specific diseased gene part for KJ, a customized therapy was developed and was successfully administered within eight months.
List of biomedical successes using animal modelsCenturies– First defines the functions of the brain and heart, from the discovery of insulin, to the development of “miracles” cancer drugs.
Human health is a shared priority, and now more than ever, it demands meaningful cooperation among scientists and physicians, policy makers and public to protect research systems that have enabled the greatest successes of the drug.
to borrow Recent words Nobel laureate Ardam Pataputian, “Now is the time for all of us to speak – because protecting American science means protecting the common prosperity of our future.”
FDA and NIH are welcoming public reactions to this and possible future workshops, and I urge everyone to hear their voice.
Anees Bermada is a biomedical researcher at the Public Voice Fellow of the Yale School of Medicine, PD Soros Fellow, and Ooped Project. Their research combines animal models with human-based and computational devices to better understand human disease and treat them.
