How Animal Testing Benefits Us from Diseases

Animal testing contributed to many life saving cures and treatments. We, humans, share 95% of our genes with a mouse, making them an effective model for the human body.

Each year, an average of 5,000 people develop kidney failure and every one-third of these people would pass away without any kidney transplant or regular dialysis. Animal experiments Joseph E. Murray and a few scientists have involved an experiment. To master the surgical technique for organ transplantation, it was carried out on pig and dogs in 1950s. However, rejection of new organ became a problem. That’s when Cyclosporine which was discovered in 1972 came in, which is extracted from a species of fungus and was found to prevent the rejection of a new organ in mice. Thereafter, Cyclosporine was tested on dogs that have undergone organ transplant, thus resulting in a 3-times increase in survival rate. What’s animal testing has done for humans? Without the help of animal testing, It would be impossible for human-being to perfect surgical techniques. With the help of animal testing, around 16,000 kidney patients benefited from kidney transplants each year, without the need to go for regular dialysis anymore.

Research shows that every 1 out of 10 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. Animal experiments. In 1960’s scientist’s research that hormone changes can influence the breast tumor cells in rats. Which led to the development of Tamoxifen which was discovered in 1967. After a further experiment with animal testing, it show a positive result of preventing the growth of cancers cells.

Animal testing is a way where humans can do research and find cure for an illness before testing it on humans. The initial use of animals here has now meant an alternative to animals for breast cancer research. Tamoxifen’s work showed that lab-grown cultures of human tumor cells will respond to drugs that are effective in patients. Without animal testing, it may not have been possible to show that the cell culture results were relevant and reliable. Animal studies, mainly rats and mice, have also been crucial in the development of monoclonal antibody treatments such as Herceptin.

With the help of animal testing, scientist was able to find a treatment for breast cancer. Today, breast cancer is of one the second most survivable female cancer, with a increase of 77% in survival rate. Tamoxifen was introduced in the 90s, is a medication that is used to help prevent and treat breast cancer in women or men by stopping the growth of hormone breast cancer cells, which had lead to 30% decrease in death rates from breast cancer. Today Tamoxifen has proven that it can help to prevent breast cancer in high-risk women.