Our friends the mice

What’s good news for mice is sometimes good news for (wo)men: So listen up.

Australian and Chinese researchers have made what could be a ground-breaking discovery about one of the mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease. Using mice – genomically so similar to us that it’s kind of scary – the scientists manipulated a receptor  that mediates the toxicity of nerve-damaging signals in the Alzheimer’s brain. In doing so they – hold onto your hats — reversed “behavioral deficits and Alzheimer’s Disease-type pathologies.” You could say, if you wanted to be dramatic about it, that they cured Alzheimer’s. In mice.

Here is my Science for Dummies explanation of what these guys did: We all (mice and [wo]men) have this good receptor that protects our brain from nerve damage and the resulting cell death and amyloid plaque build-up that are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s. But we also have a bad receptor that causes nerve damage, which results in, yes, cell death and amyloid build-up. The researchers discovered that, in the Alzheimer’s brain, the bad receptor is winning. When they genetically manipulated the mice’s brains to enhance the good receptor and jazz up (that’s science talk) its protective action, they saw the reversal of amyloid build up and cell death.

Sometimes we get very excited about research that looks ultra promising in mouse models (resveratrol is a great example) only to discover that humans are different enough that the research doesn’t easily transfer. I don’t think we start screaming from the rooftops, “We have cured Alzheimer’s.” The shout-from-the-rooftops breakthrough is the sophisticated way we are coming to understand how the healthy (and the diseased) brain works. What these scientists are discovering about the complex role of various neurotransmitters is very good news.

Meanwhile, we humans are deeply deeply indebted to the lab animals that make research like this possible. Mice and rats account for about 95 percent of all lab animals, and they have been integral to medical breakthroughs in aging, and in cancer and many other diseases. I know there are those who are against using animals in medical research, and my heart is with them. My head, though, acknowledges the leaps in understanding and the resulting amelioration of pain and illness that these little guys have made possible.