Alzheimer's research on animals a waste of time

[Catherine]

I admire the researchers for finally admitting they have been on the wrong track for years. That is the first step towards going in the right direction.

I would have thought that studying people who have Alzheimer's would be a good starting point. I am sure they could get tissue samples and do DNA analysis. They could study details of how the people lived. They could study people around them that didn't get Alzheimer's. They could study family members, both of the same generation and decendants. In some cases they could probably study a whole extended family. I am sure some small towns would be willing to participate in detailed studies.

No animals would be harmed by this and they might get some useful results.

I do home care with seniors and so far none of my Alzheimer's people have anything obvious in common. Maybe it is genetic. Maybe it is some odd exposure to something. I am pretty sure the answer does not lie in the bodies of dead mice.

Quote:As we have also discussed previously, tissue culture is now widely used in experiments, thus avoiding the use of animals. Use of human tissue cultures means that results are much more likely to work. The trouble is that, whilst many researchers have moved on, some resolutely refuse to abandon use of animals. "We've built these large expensive laboratories with hundreds of cages; we can't give it up....." This attitude can be seen, for example, in the different approach of Cancer Research Wales (only funds cancer research without use of animals) and Cancer Research UK (uses animals).

We  have invested millions in the wrong type of research, the wrong methods of approaching research. Sometimes when you have invested so much you just can't walk away. It is like a really bad relationship, you hate each other, but you have spent so long together and are so interdependent that you can't think of walking away.
All those people whose jobs involve killing mice in labs don't know how to do anything else. The big labs could still be repurposed, but the hundreds, thousands of cages will just have to be recycled. That is a big loss for a company.
So they cling to methods that don't work. Thalidomide is one of many drugs. It is just the one that was immediately noticeable and could not be ignored.

This is one time where choosing better research methods will help us and it will prevent the deaths of many animals.
Unbelievable amounts of animal suffering could end and we could find treatments for human diseases.
I hope the open admission of Alzheimer's researchers will be the wake up call that the rest of medical researchers need.

We do need to keep pushing them and that means questioning how our donations are used.