Why Drugs that Work on Mice Don't Work on Humans

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"Neuropsychiatric drug development is “in the midst of a crisis”. This is because, for every 100 neuropsychiatric drugs tested in clinical trials for ailments from autism and depression to Alzheimer’s, only nine end up as approved medications, one of the lowest approval rates across disease categories. ... To understand why this is the case, a team of neuroscientists from the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle used a new procedure, known as a single-nucleus RNA-sequencing analysis, to study the medial temporal gyrus, the area of the brain involved in language processing and deductive reasoning, in both humans and mice ... the researchers worked through almost 16,000 cells to identify 75 different cell types. Although the data set they had from mice matched their human findings almost completely, they found that ... genes that were switched on or off inside those cells, stark differences between human and mouse brains arose ... In particular, the research demonstrated large differences in neurotransmitter receptors between humans and mice, an area that has been very active in drug discovery. Although both species have these receptors, they’re expressed via different types of cell. This means that, although these neurotransmitters exist in both humans and mice, they have very different functions, putting serotonin-based drugs such as antidepressants including Prozac under even more scrutiny ... Other significant differences between mice and human brains were found in genes coding for ion channels, which interconnect neurons by controlling the electrical potential across membranes ... Also an area that has undergone a lot of study for drug discovery for ailments including neuropathic pain and cardiovascular problems"


Why Drugs that Work on Mice Don't Work on Humans | Drug Discovery And Development: Mice are used as the frontline for drug testing for brain disorders. Why? Their brains are supposed to have much of the same functioning as ours. Moreover, | Drug Discovery And Development