• Question: How can you find out how a drug will affect humans if you test them on animals?

    Asked by aforster to Darren, Deuan, Duncan, Lori-An, Michelle on 17 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Michelle Hudson-Shore

      Michelle Hudson-Shore answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Scientists use animals to test drugs as it is currently the best way to estimate how a drug will affect a person. However, it is only an estimate and you can never be entirley sure that what happens in the animal will happpen in the human. This is why I do research to try and find non-animal methods that are more relevant to humans and will predict their reponses more accurately. This is something that all scientists want but unfortunately there are limited funds and resources to do it so it takes a long time.

    • Photo: Darren Nesbeth

      Darren Nesbeth answered on 16 Jun 2010:

      Some animals are very similar to humans in terms of there anatomy, physiology and genetics.

    • Photo: Lori-An Etherington

      Lori-An Etherington answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Hello, this is a good question. Humans share at least 90% of their DNA with other animals and have the same organs (heart, brain, kidneys, liver, lungs). Animal research helps to find out more about the action of the body and this aids the development of new medicines. By law any new medicine must be tested on animals to make sure they are safe enough for humans and to find out what doses to use and any potential side effects. If a drug passes these tests it is then tested on healthy human volunteers before being considered for licencing as a new medicine. Many millions of pounds are spent each year to try and develop alternatives to animal research and the law states that animal research or testing cannot be done if there is a non-animal alternative.
      hope this helps

    • Photo: Deuan Jones

      Deuan Jones answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Well although we’re very different, there are a lot of similarities between us and animals, so in my work for example we can take a mouse infected with parasites and see if a drug works to cure them. If it does then it’s another step on the ladder towards humans because so many of the cellular processes are the same. It doesn’t always work, but it’s much closer than we can get with simulations or with testing drugs against single cells in a test tube.

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