animal model

Cystic fibrosis continues to be a lethal disease for humans despite the identification of the problematic gene two decades ago.

Many humans born with CF -- the most common genetic disease in Caucasians -- often die because of a lung disease developed later.

Scientists have been unable to develop an animal model that develops the fatal lung disease. Now, one researcher is producing pigs born with cystic fibrosis that mimic the exact symptoms of a newborn with CF.

Scientists have created an animal model suitable for testing and validating gene therapies for treatment of a common mitochondrial dysfunction that causes loss of vision.

(Emory University) In an effort to better understand how chronic stress affects the human body, researchers have created an animal model that shows how chronic stress affects behavior, physiology and reproduction.

Developing the animal model better positions the researchers to understand the neurohormonal causes of such stress and the body reaction in order to develop more effective treatment options for humans.

Lovastatin, a drug used to lower cholesterol and help prevent cardiovascular disease, has been shown to improve bone healing in an animal model of neurofibromatosis type 1.

The research, reported today in the open access journal BMC Medicine, will be of great interest to NF1 patients and their physicians.

An experimental drug has blocked the progression of prostate cancer in an animal model with an aggressive form of the disease, new research shows.

The agent, OSU-HDAC42, belongs to a new class of drugs called histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors, compounds designed to reactivate genes that normally protect against cancer but are turned off by the cancer process.

The study showed that the agent kept mice with a precancerous condition from developing advanced prostate cancer.

Researchers found socially subordinate female rhesus macaques over consume calorie-rich foods, resulting in accelerated weight gain and an increase in fat-derived hormones.

The study is a critical step in understanding the psychological basis for the sharp increase in obesity across all age groups since the mid-1970s.

This is the first study to show how food intake can be reliably and automatically measured, thus identifying the optimal animal model and setting for future obesity studies.

By restoring two small molecules that are often lost in chronic lymphocytic leukemia, researchers were able to block tumor growth in an animal model.

The study also uses human CLL cells to show that the two molecules, called miR-15a and miR-16-1, affect 70 genes, most of which are involved in cell growth, death, proliferation and metabolism.

This reveals how the molecules normally protect against cancer and suggests a possible new CLL treatment strategy.

Researchers have for the first time used drug-treated blood stem cells to repair heart damage in an animal model, results that might point to methods for healing injuries from heart attacks or disease.

Australian researchers have identified a potential new target for treatment of neuroblastoma, the most common solid tumor among young children.

The treatment involves inhibiting the production of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC1), a gene driven by the MYCN oncogene that is a powerful predictor of death from this disease.

Researchers report that ODC1 inhibition delayed or prevented the development of neuroblastoma in a clinically relevant animal model, suggesting that suppressing ODC1 could be target for treating this cancer.

Schizophrenia is a complex type of psychotic mental illness characterized by thoughts that are uncoupled from reality.

While enormous gains in the effective treatment of affected individuals have been achieved through the use of antipsychotic drugs, the medications have side effects.

Researchers have created a new animal model that allows them to explore the sequence of some drugs' early effect in an effort to optimize the medications during treatment.