A Search for Sick Animals - by Trevor Klee - Asimov Press

A 2020 study suggests that monkeys can develop Parkinson’s, just like humans. Why haven't the findings been duplicated, and what will it take to find more “natural” animal models?

Animal models that suffer from the same diseases as humans are perhaps our most valuable resources for studying those conditions. Whether researching cancer in mice, tuberculosis in guinea pigs, or osteoarthritis in horses, scientists use such animals as accelerated case studies. Animals develop diseases more quickly than humans do. They can also be tracked continuously throughout the course of a disease and (unwittingly) serve as test subjects for risky, experimental treatments. But as useful as these models are, not every condition we hope to study occurs in animals.1 Humans are unique,…

related reading

• Parkinson’s Disease: Etiology, Neuropathology, and Pathogenesis - Parkinson’s Disease - NCBI Bookshelfncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• Gap Mapgap-map.org
• Prodromal non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s diseasepmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• Parkinson Disease - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelfncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• Prediction of Parkinson’s Disease Using Machine Learning Methodsncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• Prognostic Modeling of Parkinson’s Disease Progression Using Early Longitudinal Patterns of Changepmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• Why is progress in biology so slow?sam-rodriques.com
• Mystery of America’s ‘Parkinson’s Belt’ Where Chemicals ‘Areparkinsonsresource.org
• Mining imaging and clinical data with machine learning approaches for the diagnosis and early detection of Parkinson’s disease | npj Parkinson's Diseasenature.com
• Low clinical diagnostic accuracy of early vs advanced Parkinson disease: Clinicopathologic study - PMCpmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• Prediction of Parkinson’s Disease Using Machine Learning Methodspmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
• Stem cell therapy set for human trials after reversing Parkinson's in ratsnewatlas.com