Can animal models of disease reliably inform human studies?
- Date:
- March 30, 2010
- Source:
- Public Library of Science
- Summary:
- "The value of animal experiments for predicting the effectiveness of treatment strategies in clinical trials has remained controversial, mainly because of a recurrent failure of interventions apparently promising in animal models to translate to the clinic," say the authors of a new article in which they discuss the controversies and possibilities of translating the results of animal experiments into human clinical trials.
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"The value of animal experiments for predicting the effectiveness of treatment strategies in clinical trials has remained controversial, mainly because of a recurrent failure of interventions apparently promising in animal models to translate to the clinic," say authors in a Research in Translation piece published in PLoS Medicine.
The PLoS Medicine magazine article by H. van der Worp (University Medicine Centre Utrecht) and colleagues discusses the controversies and possibilities of translating the results of animal experiments into human clinical trials.
Related research, published in PLoS Biology, shows how selective reporting of medical research carried out on animals may be creating a false impression of how effective drugs might be.
A team of researchers, led by the University of Edinburgh, say this is because medical journals are more likely to publish positive results that highlight medical advances than negative or neutral findings, which are deemed less interesting.
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Materials provided by Public Library of Science. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal References:
- van der Worp HB, Howells DW, Sena ES, Porritt MJ, Rewell S, et al. Can Animal Models of Disease Reliably Inform Human Studies? PLoS Medicine, 2010; 7 (3): e1000245 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000245
- Sena ES, van der Worp HB, Bath PMW, Howells DW, Macleod MR. Publication Bias in Reports of Animal Stroke Studies Leads to Major Overstatement of Efficacy. PLoS Biology, 2010; 8 (3): e1000344 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000344
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