New Findings May Open Doors for HCV Research
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The Editors at Hepatitis Central
August 8, 2013
Chimpanzees are the first animal model that might help provide new approaches for the treatment and vaccines to help against HCV. Humans and chimpanzees were found to be the only species that can be infected with the virus.
Cure for hepatitis C virus comes closer to reality
Washington, Aug 3 (ANI): Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have shown for the first time that the hepatitis C virus (HCV) can replicate in monkeys, by differentiating monkey stem cells into liver cells and inducing successful infection.
The new findings may lead to the first new animal model and provide new avenues for developing treatments and vaccines for this disease, which impacts more than three million people in the United States.
Continue reading this entire article:
http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/2013/08/03/129-Cure-for-hepatitis-C-virus-comes-closer-to-reality.html
1 Comment
I find it odd that you would use this misleading article. Years of horrific research on chimpanzees have not yielded significant results that is why NIH is retiring many chimps that have been scarred by vivisection:
Critics of chimp research argue that the case of HIV is not an isolated
case of scientific indiscretion. Even in the case of Hepatitis, chimps
respond differently from humans. Chimps infected with Hepatitis B will
not become sick while humans exhibit traditional symptoms of liver
disease. And chimps infected with Hepatitis C will not develop cirrhosis
of the liver or liver cancer, though humans will. And in fact, with
regard to drug development, 70% of drugs that have tested safe in
nonhuman primates are known to be harmful to the human fetus.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/chimpanzees-an-unnatural-history/alternatives-to-chimp-testing/2500/
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110615/full/474268a.html
As stated in the article:
Dr. Evans and his team found that HCV was less efficient at entering
macaque cells to initiate infection compared to human cells because
changes in the macaque form of a certain cell surface receptor rendered
it less functional than the human version.
Why not use human cells?This is a roundabout way to research Hepatitis c at an exorbitant cost without factoring in the cost and cruelty inherent in the vivisection vivarium. the examples below are the norm, not the exception. I have seen it with my own eyes:
http://directaction4.info/USA_primates_Aug10/index.html
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:AVqutf35RJMJ:www.nia.nih.gov/NR/rdonlyres/7DB43991-C46B-40F8-9199-6C282424000F/1964/Clarkson.pdf+Cardiovascular+Health+and+Cognition:+Perspectives+on+Using+the+Primate+as+a+Model&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiwn2lU3RclvNkPVgT5RZj7DQ8B3CdPa2efW8J_MSIkZHwdBsBeTydzcY5nVL-QzvZTw_v7_K-VTIEfMm1Wrfw-932e2Mq-PgcdIBcxdosZG9ePBb8HU4M-E-zEbWZcPtUYfiTY&sig=AHIEtbQFR-bZnieIWzUKt13Z5mJviXY63w