Researchers are studying fish which can repair their own hearts.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the UK are living with debilitating heart failure. They can’t regenerate their damaged hearts. But zebrafish can. If part of their heart is damaged they can repair it in a matter of weeks, just like we are able to mend a broken bone.  That’s why our Mending Broken Hearts Appeal is funding researchers to find out what their secret is.

Because zebrafish are transparent early in their life cycle, it’s easy for researchers to see their hearts and blood vessels grow. Their hearts begin to develop after just 12 hours, and they reach adult size – about 3cm long – in about three months, so they can provide quick research results. Read More

Biological similarity of humans and other animals

Although humans and animals (technically “non-human animals”) may look different, at a physiological and anatomical level they are remarkably similar. Animals, from mice to monkeys, have the same organs (heart, lungs, brain etc.) and organ systems (respiratory, cardiovascular, nervous systems etc.) which perform the same functions in pretty much the same way. The similarity means that nearly 90% of the veterinary medicines that are used to treat animals are the same as, or very similar to, those developed to treat human patients. There are minor differences, but these are far outweighed by the similarities. The differences can give important clues about diseases and how they might be treated – for instance, if we knew why the mouse with muscular dystrophy suffers less muscle wasting than human patients, this might lead to a treatment for this debilitating and fatal disorder. Read More

More investment to characterize animal models can boost the ability of preclinical work to predict drug effects in humans

Mice take the blame for one of the most uncomfortable truths in translational research. Even after animal studies suggest that a treatment will be safe and effective, more than 80% of potential therapeutics fail when tested in people. Animal models of disease are frequently condemned as poor predictors of whether an experimental drug can become an effective treatment. Often, though, the real reason is that the preclinical experiments were not rigorously designed. 

The series of clinical trials for a potential therapy can cost hundreds of millions of dollars. The human costs are even greater: patients with progressive terminal illnesses may have just one shot at an unproven but promising treatment. Clinical trials typically require patients to commit to year or more of treatment, during which they are precluded from pursuing other experimental options. Launching a clinical trial without the backing of robust animal data keeps patients out of tests for therapies that may have a better chance of success.Read More