monkey brain research is bad science

[Guest guest]

" Primates' track record at predicting drugs' dangerous side effects

is abysmal.

Many drugs that were safe for primates have gone on to injure and

kill people. For example, amrinone (for heart failure) was tested on

numerous non-human primates and released with confidence. However,

one in five human patients haemorrhaged as the drug prevented normal

blood clotting.

 

An Alzheimer's vaccine was withdrawn in 2001 when it caused serious

brain inflammation in patients, after proving safe and effective in

tests on monkeys.

 

Countless drugs for stroke have been developed and tested in primates

and other animals, yet all of them have failed and even harmed

patients in clinical trials.

 

Monkeys do not suffer from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's or Huntington's

diseases and when these diseases are artificially induced they

manifest very differently from the real human versions.

 

Human brains can now be studied non-invasively using remarkable high-

tech scanners. These enable the conscious brain to be observed while

engaged in a variety of cognitive tasks (talking, singing, reading,

writing, etc) of which monkeys are not even capable - and thus

clearly could not provide any relevant insight.

 

Experimenting on monkeys in the hope of unlocking the secrets of the

human brain is an exercise in futility.

 

The most dramatic differences between humans and other primates are

in the brain.

 

Our brain is four times larger than that of a chimpanzee, which is

four times larger than that of a macaque.

 

Biochemical pathways in the human brain are unique. Gene expression

in our brain is dramatically different from that of the chimpanzee.

 

Future advances in our understanding and treatment of

neurodegenerative diseases will come from where they always have -

human-based observation and ethical clinical research. "

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3234124.stm