Science can have a dark side, but it is necessary and animal testing is essential to test the efficiency of studies, vaccines, drugs or any new method that can be used in human beings humans. Due to the similarity with the human organism, rats are the first choice animals to be used in laboratories, but this may be about to change with the new studies that are being done with to the caterpillars. Check now the reasons for this change.
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Our rodent friends, like mice and rats, are well known in laboratories. These little ones have been used for decades, and it was only possible to understand cancer through studies carried out with them. But the main function of these rodents is to test the effectiveness of various drugs and their safety.
However, this long-standing partnership may be coming to an end. Scientists are studying ways to replace mice with another type of animal, one that is cheaper to test and breed, that has the same similarity to the human organism. We are talking about caterpillars, since they were already an option in laboratories in Germany and Switzerland to study colorectal cancer.
Why caterpillars?
A study conducted by the physician nuclear and radiologist Jan Grimm, may explain why caterpillars can be substitutes for mice in laboratories. In Grimm's research, these two animals have a high degree of similarity and have the structure and physiology of the human intestine.
And according to studies on this insect, caterpillars are just a walking long intestine, making them perfect for studying inflammation and disease that can occur in the human intestine. But another reason they are used is that the caterpillars could be useful in future preclinical research for other conditions from cancer, diabetes, neurodegeneration and infections.
In addition to all these reasons, the monetary part is also a big factor, especially for these laboratories and researchers, as it is significantly more expensive and time consuming to breed the rodents than to breed them. of caterpillars.
