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EU proposals endanger HIV research

Posted by Zebedee under blog's category : Policy Issues

Researchers have identified a cheap, commonly-used compound that, applied vaginally, can stop monkeys being infected with a monkey version of HIV, according to a study published in the science journal Nature today. You can read more about it on BBC online.

Prof Andrew McMichael, Director of Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford, warns:

'The finding demonstrates how critically important studies in monkeys are to the understanding of HIV infection and development of strategies to prevent infection. Current proposals to restrict non-human primate research in the EU could prevent this type of work which could have outcomes of immense benefit to human health.'

Of course more research will be needed before this microbiocide can be tried in humans. The history of research into HIV and AIDS is marked by many successes but is also littered with failures, which many blame on a headlong rush to human trials at the expense of more basic (animal) research.

So the new results are a timely reminder of the concerns of the research community about proposals to change EU Directive 86/609 that governs animal research across the EU.

Elsewhere on this website you can find more details about these concerns. If they were not somewhat complex, we are sure that they would be shared more widely by the general public and particularly by patients. They are being brought to the attention of MEPs.

In general, the draft Directive as proposed by the Commission is poorly worded and will fail to provide the desired harmonisation or improvements in animal welfare. Instead, it could drive research out of Europe to places where animal welfare standards are likely to be lower.

Specific proposals are worrying because they signal an increase in red tape, they threaten certain areas of research - as we have heard today - and they provide no significant animal welfare benefits.

IMAGE©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/DRA_SCHWARTZ

Comments

Visigoth

Thu 5 Mar 2009 17:15

An interesting piece of research, and it's worth noting that one of the criticisms of some of the work done on the earlier microbiocides that failed in human clinical trials was that they were never evaluated using the SIV monkey model of HIV infection, but largely relied on in vitro testing that failed to represent the situation in vivo (RM Grant et al. Science (2008) DOI: 10.1126/science.1160355). So it's good to see that the microbiocide research community is learning from it's past mistakes. This is not the only microbiocide under development in the UK, another one at St George's University of London which added the anti-viral drug Tenofovir to a gel has also had promising results in tests of its ability to prevent SIV infection in monkeys (Cranage M, PLoS Med, 2008, doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0050157)

The microbiocide wasn't the only monkey research related story in the news today, as the BBC also reported that a monoclonal antibody drug called mepolizumab has performed well in its latest trial as a treatment for asthma.

The preclinical evaluation of both the safety of mepolizumab and its ability to decrease the levels of eosinophils in the blood was performed in cynomolgus monkeys. This testing indicated that the antibody safely reduces the number of circulating eosinophils, thereby blocking their ability to cause inflammation. The study also showed that the antibody didn't interfere with monkeys that were chosen as the animal model because of the close similarity of the IL-5 protein target of mepolizumab between humans, and because in vitro tests showed that it was equally good at binding to and blocking the ability of human and cynomolgus monkey IL-5 to stimulate eosinophil production (Hart TK et al. J Allergy Clin Immunol, 2001, doi: 10.1067/mai.2001.116576).

All-in-all a day that shows how important research using monkeys is to medical progress.

An interesting piece of research, and it's worth noting that one of the criticisms of some of the work done on the earlier microbiocides that failed in human clinical trials was that they were never evaluated using the SIV monkey model of HIV infection, but largely relied on in vitro testing that failed to represent the situation in vivo (RM Grant et al. Science (2008) DOI: 10.1126/science.1160355). So it's good to see that the microbiocide research community is learning from it's past mistakes.  This is not the only microbiocide under development in the UK, another one at St George's University of London which added the anti-viral drug Tenofovir to a gel has also had promising results in tests of its ability to prevent SIV infection in monkeys (Cranage M, PLoS Med, 2008, doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0050157)

The microbiocide wasn't the only monkey research related story in the news today, as the BBC also reported that a monoclonal antibody drug called mepolizumab has performed well in its latest trial as a treatment for asthma.
 
The preclinical evaluation of both the safety of mepolizumab and its ability to decrease the levels of eosinophils in the blood was performed in cynomolgus monkeys. This testing  indicated that the antibody safely reduces the number of circulating eosinophils, thereby blocking their ability to cause inflammation.  The study also showed that the antibody didn't interfere with monkeys that were chosen as the animal model because of the close similarity of the IL-5 protein target of mepolizumab between humans, and because in vitro tests showed that it was equally good at binding to and blocking the ability of human and cynomolgus monkey IL-5 to stimulate eosinophil production (Hart TK et al.  J Allergy Clin Immunol, 2001, doi: 10.1067/mai.2001.116576).   

All-in-all a day that shows how important research using monkeys is to medical progress.