For decades, Alzheimer’s research wasted time and money on animal testing wasted – for the development of countless medication, which ultimately proved to be a failure. These attempts have cost countless animals their lives. But human patients also continue to suffer, because the results of the experiments are obviously almost never transferrable to humans.
Find out more regarding the background to Alzheimer’s research here: Why do so many therapeutics tested on animals fail in clinical trials? And what more reliable solutions are there?
Alzheimer’s research: animal suffering and non-transmissibility
To date, over 100 Alzheimer’s therapeutics have been abandoned during development or have failed in clinical trials that followed the previous phase of animal testing. The reason for this is that “animal models” cannot accurately capture the entire spectrum of the human clinical picture – this also includes differences in drug metabolism between humans and animals. [1]
Mice, dogs and other animals do not naturally develop Alzheimer’s disease
In an attempt to develop drugs once morest Alzheimer’s, experimenters have had mice, rats, dogs and others for years animals tormented.
- The problem: These animals do not develop Alzheimer’s naturally.
- The method: “Researchers” therefore have that inheritance of the animals altered to induce the formation of amyloid plaques, which similar way occur in the brain of affected people.
- The result: The animals can once morest symptomswhich are similar to those of Alzheimer’s, but no Alzheimer’s are, [2] seem to be helped – but human patients continue to suffer.
Studies have shown that test drugs that remove the toxic beta-amyloid protein from the animals’ brains can help them. However, in human patients with memory loss or cognitive disorders, the same drugs do not help. [3]
Die failure rate of new Alzheimer’s drugs in humans is incredible 99.6 percent.
Treatment methods that are effective in animals may harm human Alzheimer’s patients
Among other things, drugs called BACE inhibitors have proven successful in mice that have been genetically engineered to develop pseudo-Alzheimer’s disease. In human patients, on the other hand, these drugs appeared to actually worsen cognitive abilities and potentially exacerbate brain shrinkage. [2] A total of six pharmaceutical companies were able to confirm this failure across the board. [4]
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Alleged Alzheimer’s drug Solanezumab from Eli Lilly
Eli Lilly’s Solanezumab antibody, developed to treat Alzheimer’s, was initially hailed as the drug had been successfully tested in mice and monkeys – but proved a complete failure in humans. [5]
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Drugs from three pharmaceutical companies failed
At a science conference in 2018, three pharmaceutical companies announced that their investigational drugs for treating Alzheimer’s had failed, despite being successfully tested on genetically engineered mice with pseudo-Alzheimer’s disease. [6]
The preparations, also known as BACE inhibitors, apparently even harmed the patients because they worsened their cognitive abilities and led to brain atrophy. The journal Nature wrote of the long list of failures: “Drug companies have invested billions looking for therapies that can reverse or significantly slow Alzheimer’s – but to no avail.” [2]
Over a million patients in Germany need effective treatment
In Germany, well over a million people suffer from dementia diseases such as Alzheimer’s – and more than 200,000 new cases are added every year. [7] In relation to society, the costs of illness for all dementia diseases are around 54 billion euros per year. These costs will multiply in the coming decades. [8]
Despite the devastating extent, there is currently no therapy that can slow down the progression of the disease.
Success in Alzheimer’s research can only be achieved with animal-free methods
At PETA Germany, we have been working with our international partner organizations for years to ensure that more human-relevant studies and fewer useless animal experiments are funded. In November 2021 it became known that researchers in a current study human data for the first time have used to study the various processes that lead to Alzheimer’s. They discovered that the disease develops in a completely different way than previously thought. [9]
This is not surprising, because mice and other animals differ significantly from humans genetically or physiologically. Repeated experiments with these animals have been done in the past Not led to the development of effective drugs once morest the disease.
Science is increasingly showing that animal testing is not leading to the development of effective treatments for Alzheimer’s: “animal models” are outdated methodswho can never replicate this human form of dementia. The focus of modern research must be on effective, animal-free methods that are actually relevant to human physiology – an example of this would be the so-called human-on-a-chip.
“We’re trying to cure a disease with a complex system that we don’t really understand.”
Ed Lein, Senior Investigator am Allen Institute for Brain Science
Bradley Hyman, Professor of Neurology and Alzheimer’s Research at the Harvard Medical School and on Massachusetts General Hospital, adds that the complexity of Alzheimer’s makes it “very difficult to reproduce with experimental systems”. He therefore takes the view:
“A direct examination of the human brain is undoubtedly essential for understanding the disease.”[10]
Help modernize research: Demand the end of animal testing in the EU
In animal experiments sentient beings misused, although the results cannot be reliably extrapolated to humans and may even hinder the development of important drugs. These cruel experiments are morally indefensible and also outdated.
Help modernize research in Europe: sign the European citizens’ initiative for a mandatory phasing out of animal testing and for a uniform ban on animal testing in the EU.
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Sources
[1] businesswire (2020): Hesperos Human-on-a-Chip System used to Model Preclinical Stages of Alzheimer’s Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment, https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200529005128/en/Hesperos-Human-on-a-Chip%C2%AE-System-Model-Preclinical-Stages-Alzheimer%E2%80%99s (accessed on 06/29/2022)
[2] Reardon, Sara (2018): Alzheimer’s researchers seek better mice. Nature. 2018;563:611-612, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07484-w (accessed on 06/29/2022)
[3] Cummings J. L. et al. (2014): Alzheimer’s disease drug-development pipeline: few candidates, frequent failures. Alzheimers Res Ther. 2014;6(4):37
[4] Panza, F. et al. (2019): Do BACE inhibitor failures in Alzheimer patients challenge the amyloid hypothesis ft he disease? Expert Rev Neuroeth. 2019;19(7):599-602
[5] aerzteblatt.de (2016): Alzheimer’s disease: Solanezumab antibody finally fails in phase 3 study, https://www.aerzteblatt.de/nachrichten/71642/Morbus-Alzheimer-Antikoerper-Solanezumab-scheitert-endgueltig-in-Phase-3-Studie (accessed on 06/29/2022)
[6] ALZFORUM (2018): Bump in the Road or Disaster? BACE Inhibators Worsen Cognition, https://www.alzforum.org/news/conference-coverage/bump-road-or-disaster-bace-inhibitors-worsen-cognition (accessed on 06/29/2022)
[7] DGN German Society for Neurology (09/27/2019): News from Alzheimer’s research, https://dgn.org/presse/pressemitteilungen/neues-aus-der-alzheimer-forschung/ (accessed on 07/22/2022)
[8] Medical Tribune (2019): Dementia: Societal Costs May Multiply https://www.medical-tribune.de/meinung-und-dialog/artikel/demenz-gesellschaftliche-kosten-koennen-sich-vervielfachen/ (accessed on 06/29/2022)
[9] Science Daily (2021): Cause of Alzheimer’s progression in the brain, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211029152240.htm (accessed on 07/21/2022)
[10] Allen Institute for Brain Science. Seattle researchers team up to build hi-res brain map of Alzheimer’s disease, https://alleninstitute.org/what-we-do/brain-science/news-press/press-releases/seattle-researchers-team-build-hi-res-brain-map-alzheimers-disease (accessed on September 17, 2020)