Alternative Methods
Human
Studies of Human populations, volunteers and patients
• Scanning technologies (e.g. MEG, MRI, PET and CT) have isolated brain abnormalities in some humans providing information about the causes of disease and disorder.
In particular, studies using magnetoencepahlography (MEG) provided a new understanding of human vision and epilepsy.
http://www.scienceroom.org/file_download/12/Pioneering+MEG.pdf
Laser Doppler perfusion imaging can be used to directly investigate the circulation of tiny blood vessels of diabetic human volunteers.
http://www.drhadwentrust.org/non-animal-research/research-highlights#i
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been used to study the function of the human brain in healthy volunteers. For e.g. A study by Professor Walsh and colleagues aimed to learn more about neural processing by safely mimicking brain damage. The technique is now used in place of some experiments on non-human primates.
http://www.scienceroom.org/tms-and-brain-function
Research is currently being conducted into TMS as a possible treatment for depression.
http://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/public/depression/treatments/physical.cfm#Transcranial
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) could be a treatment tool for various neurological conditions. Such as:
Stroke: Mansur, C., et al., 2005, A sham-stimulation controlled trial of rTMS of the unaffected hemisphere in stroke patients. Neurology, 64, pp 1802-1804.
Parkinson's disease: Khedr, E., et al.,2006, Effects of daily repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation on motor performance in Parkinson's disease. Movement Disorders, 21:pp 2201 -2205.
And possibly Migraine
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/148317.php
• Human cells and tissue - The use of human cells and tissue leftover from surgical procedures, placentas or donated cadavers can be used to produce vaccines, develop drugs, detect toxicity and corrosiveness of chemicals etc. (See In Vitro for more details.)
• The use of clinical patch test in human volunteers can confirm that a chemical will not cause irritation or allergic skin reaction. The “human 4-hr patch test is a valid alternative to the equivalent rabbit test for the assessment of skin irritation hazard to humans.”
Griffiths, H. A., et al., 1997, Interlaboratory evaluation of a human patch test for the identification of skin irritation potential/hazard. Food and Chemical Toxicology 35 (2), pp 255-260
• Post-Marketing Drug Surveillance -A system that allows consumers to report all effects of a medication after it has been released to the public. It alerts to negative side effects but could also increases the likelihood of finding new uses for existing drugs.
• Human Microdosing – This technique involves giving minute doses of novel medicines to volunteers. A microdose is too small to be toxic but it allows the pharmakinetics of the active ingredient to be studied. Human Microdosing aims to reduce the resources spent on non-viable drugs and reduce the number of animal experiments.
http://www.nc3rs.org.uk/downloaddoc.asp?id=339&page=193&skin=0
Tissue engineering rather than xenotransplantation
Tissue engineering has led to the first successfully grown replacement organ. A bladder made from the patient’s own cells. (Atala, A. et al., 2006, Tissue-engineered autologous bladders for patients needing cystoplasty, The Lancet, Volume 367, Issue 9518, pp 1241 – 1246.)
1. Link to article Building a Bladder
2. Link to article Bioengineered bladders
“Atala adds that they are also working on growing bio-engineered hearts and pancreases.”
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8939-bioengineered-bladders-successful-in-patients.html
Others are currently working on Bone Tissue Engineering.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tissue/
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