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Peoples' Immune Systems Can Now Be Duplicated In Mice

Posted by samzenpus on from the rodent-proxy dept.

cylonlover writes "Because everyone's immune system is different, it's impossible to predict with absolute certainty how any given person will react to a specific medication. In the not-too-distant future, however, at-risk patients may get their own custom-altered mouse, with an immune system that's a copy of their own. Medications could be tried out on the mouse first, and if they are shown to have no adverse effects, the person could take the medication with a higher degree of confidence. If the person has an autoimmune disease, the mouse could also provide valuable insight into its treatment. A team led by Columbia University Medical Center's Dr. Megan Sykes has recently developed a method of creating just such a 'personalized immune mouse.'"

8 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. I think PETA just had a heart attack by Sydin · · Score: 5, Funny

    Unfortunately they turned down a personalized immune mouse, so nobody saw it coming.

  2. Wouldn't it make more sense... by Brooklynoid · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...to use a guinea pig for this?

    1. Re:Wouldn't it make more sense... by trongey · · Score: 3, Insightful

      yes, because human lives are worth so much less than animals.....

      Are they worth more?
      How is the value of a life determined?

      --
      You never really know how close to the edge you can go until you fall off.
    2. Re:Wouldn't it make more sense... by Eponymous+Hero · · Score: 5, Funny

      moot point. obviously all PETA members are willing to undergo these tests themselves in order to spare the animals.

      --
      insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
  3. Mice with human immune systems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yep, nothing could possibly go wrong with this.

    And throughout history, no mouse has ever infected a human. So ... we're ... safe?

  4. Limits to feasibility: remember TeGenero case by waterbear · · Score: 4, Informative

    It remains to be shown how realistically close to human this mouse model can possibly be.

    One remembers that a few years ago http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp068082 (New England Journal of Medicine), a candidate antibody-type medicament from TeGenero produced severe toxicity in the first (and only) volunteers who received it, though previous animal trials had seemed to give a green light to take it forward to humans. Although the initial test animals there were not altered as in the way now proposed, clearly limits exist for the degree of alteration that can be achieved.

    -wb-

  5. Old News, I say! by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Funny

    For who among us has not heard the refrain "Eh, it seemed stable on the test box, push it to the Production instances."?

  6. Obligatory Douglas Adams reference by afeeney · · Score: 3

    Of course, the mice actually decided that this was the easiest way to get humans to serve as genetic test subjects for them.