4 ms·

This would be great news if we have not cured mice many times before of Alzheimer's. Unfortunatly all the drugs that have worked in mice failed when tested in h

This would be great news if we have not cured mice many times before of Alzheimer's. Unfortunatly all the drugs that have worked in mice failed when tested in humans. It appears that the mouse model is a very poor model for the human form of the disease. I would go so far as to say it is worse than useless and actively leads us astray.

adrianN 9y ago
I wonder if we had similar success with curing Alzheimer (or cancer for that matter) in humans if experimenting on humans were possible.
- psergeant 9y ago
  Experimenting on humans is possible; that’s what clinical trials are for
  - danieltillett 9y ago
    The problem is the FDA won’t let you in practice test in humans until you have shown effectiveness in animal models. Of course if the animal model is not similar to the human form then what you end up doing is testing a drug that worked for one disease on a totally different one. In someways it is like using a drug that treats high blood pressure and then testing to see if cures bladder cancer. You might get lucky, but it is a pretty longshot.
  - adrianN 9y ago
    But you can't try a couple of drugs and then dissect the humans to see how the plaque in their brain looks like. Genetically engineering humans to develop Alzheimer more quickly is also generally frowned upon.
  - ci5er 9y ago
    Ha! You are funny. Please show me the regs via which this is as possible as you suggest.
Fnoord 9y ago
Do you mean mouse & rat? > I would go so far as to say it is worse than useless and actively leads us astray. A notable example is when a strain (or perhaps race is a better terminology) is used which is known to be very sensitive to cancer. Using that to prove something causes cancer is a slippery slope, especially when its extrapolated to other conclusions.
- danieltillett 9y ago
  There is no animal good model for Alzheimers. You raise a very good point which is almost all the animal models we have are terrible models for human disease that is supposedly being studied. Cancer models of cancer are just as bad. Interestingly the only good model of human cancer are spontaneous cancers in human pet dogs [1]. Of course we hardly use this models despite most dog owners being willing to volunteer their pets for study. 1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3130881/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3130881/

adrianN 9y ago

I wonder if we had similar success with curing Alzheimer (or cancer for that matter) in humans if experimenting on humans were possible.

psergeant 9y ago
Experimenting on humans is possible; that’s what clinical trials are for
- danieltillett 9y ago
  The problem is the FDA won’t let you in practice test in humans until you have shown effectiveness in animal models. Of course if the animal model is not similar to the human form then what you end up doing is testing a drug that worked for one disease on a totally different one. In someways it is like using a drug that treats high blood pressure and then testing to see if cures bladder cancer. You might get lucky, but it is a pretty longshot.
- adrianN 9y ago
  But you can't try a couple of drugs and then dissect the humans to see how the plaque in their brain looks like. Genetically engineering humans to develop Alzheimer more quickly is also generally frowned upon.
- ci5er 9y ago
  Ha! You are funny. Please show me the regs via which this is as possible as you suggest.

Fnoord 9y ago

Do you mean mouse & rat? > I would go so far as to say it is worse than useless and actively leads us astray. A notable example is when a strain (or perhaps race is a better terminology) is used which is known to be very sensitive to cancer. Using that to prove something causes cancer is a slippery slope, especially when its extrapolated to other conclusions.

danieltillett 9y ago
There is no animal good model for Alzheimers. You raise a very good point which is almost all the animal models we have are terrible models for human disease that is supposedly being studied. Cancer models of cancer are just as bad. Interestingly the only good model of human cancer are spontaneous cancers in human pet dogs [1]. Of course we hardly use this models despite most dog owners being willing to volunteer their pets for study. 1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3130881/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3130881/