It is no exaggeration to say that almost every form of conventional medical treatment—including drugs, vaccines, and surgery—rests in part on the study of animals. However, this fundamental link is frequently not appreciated.
The following examples illustrate just a few of the many important medical advances that have resulted directly from animal experiments.
Animals develop many of the same diseases as people, including hemophilia, diabetes, and epilepsy. Animals are also susceptible to many of the same infectious diseases as people, such as anthrax, smallpox, and malaria.
An animal is chosen as an "animal model" for research only if it shares characteristics with people that are relevant to the research. For example, Louis Pasteur was able to use dogs as an animal model for studying rabies. He was able to develop a rabies vaccine because dogs and people can both develop rabies, and the immune systems of dogs and people react to the rabies virus in the same way. For this research, it did not matter that humans and dogs differ in other ways.
Both dogs and humans have benefited from the rabies vaccine. Other species have benefited from vaccine research as well. Mouse models were used to develop a new kind of vaccine, known as a DNA vaccine, which is used to inoculate California condors against West Nile virus in an effort to save this species from extinction.
Animal research has helped to develop drugs and vaccines to control and cure many infectious diseases.
Until the 20th century, it was common to lose a child to disease. Smallpox, polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, measles, and mumps maimed and killed thousands of children every year.
But due to the development of vaccines, there has not been a single natural case of smallpox in the world since 1977, polio has been eradicated in the Western Hemisphere, and whooping cough, tetanus, and mumps are rarely seen in developed countries. We owe all of these successes to animal research.
More recently, animal studies have contributed to the development of new drugs for cancer and other diseases. Gleevec, for example, is the first effective treatment for people with chronic myeloid leukemia. It was developed using cell cultures and mouse studies.
Cancer research requires the use of many different models. Cell and tissue culture, whole animal models, and clinical (human) studies help scientists better understand both the causes of diseases and better ways to prevent, treat, and possibly cure them. All of these methods were used in the development of Gleevec.
In order to develop a new drug to treat a disease, it is necessary to make use of all of these models. Culture, animal, and human studies each play an important role in the struggle to understand disease and develop cures.
Many surgical procedures were and continue to be developed through the use of animal models. Animal research was essential in developing many life-saving surgical procedures once thought impossible.
Heart valve replacement is now a common procedure, and development of these artificial heart valves would not have been possible without animal research. Organ transplantation, open heart surgery, and many other common procedures were also developed using animal models.
Finally, it is important to recognize that basic research using animals is needed to provide a foundation for future medical advances.
The goal of basic research is to understand the function of newly discovered molecules and cells, strange phenomena, or little-understood processes. Although the benefits to health from this type of research may not be immediately evident, it is an essential part of efforts to understand, prevent, and cure disease.
Examples of basic research that has led to important advances in medicine are the discovery of DNA (leading to cancer treatments) and neurotransmitters (leading to antidepressants and antiseizure medications), and development of the tools that led to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
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