In the news
7 Oct 2008
26 September 2008
One failing CF animal model leads to another
The mouse ‘model’ of cystic fibrosis (CF) is so unlike the human disease that it has failed, time and again, to produce treatments that are relevant for patients. In the media this week are reports that researchers are now attempting to solve this problem by moving on to CF pigs. However, the Dr Hadwen Trust believes that scientists need to stop repeating the same mistakes by relying on animal models and instead move towards more reliable and relevant non-animal techniques.
It is widely admitted by researchers that CF mice don’t effectively represent patients. Because of anatomical and physiological differences, the mice don’t suffer the same symptoms of CF, even though they have a mutation in a gene in the equivalent spot to CF patients.
Now researchers in the USA have created a CF pig, with similar genetic defects, in the hope that it will be more similar to human patients and therefore lead to treatments for the disease. However, the Dr Hadwen Trust cautions that pigs are not an acceptable surrogate for human patients. Pigs do not naturally suffer from CF, and it is not yet known whether they will develop the lung disease seen in human CF. Even if they do, the artificially-caused disease is unlikely to be equivalent to CF. In addition, using pigs as ‘models’ in this way causes suffering and is ethically unacceptable.
The Dr Hadwen Trust is currently funding non-animal replacement research to find better ways of studying this fatal disease that are more relevant to human patients. We have awarded researchers at Liverpool University a three-year grant to develop new ways of studying the bacteria that cause lung infections in CF in the test tube. This will subsequently enable scientists to study treatments for the lung infections in the laboratory without using animals to harbour the bacteria.
