Volume 1

The revision of the EU Directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes / House of Lords. European Union Committee.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords. European Union Committee
Date:
2009
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: The revision of the EU Directive on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes / House of Lords. European Union Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    125/260 (page 119)
    eee The ability to identify the region in living people means that both the structure and function of this area can be studied in humans at the same time. This approach will also help tackling clinical challenges. For example, identifying brain regions in living subjects may be useful for accurately targeting these structures for medical interventions, such as brain surgery for Parkinson’s disease or brain stimulation for stroke. This technique has enormous potential to replace invasive tracer studies in animals, especially primates, as well as enhancing the quality of evidence concerning brain connectivity. REFERENCES 1. Tomassini V, Jbabdi S, Klein JC et al (2007) Diffusion-weighted imaging tractography-based parcellation of the human lateral premotor cortex identified dorsal and ventral subregions with anatomical and functional specialisations. J Neurosci 27:1059-1069. 2. Jbabdi S, Woolrich W M W, Andersson J L R et al (2007) A Bayesian framework for global tractography. NeurolImage 37:116-129. 3. Behrens T E J, Johansen Berg H, Rushworth M F S et al (2007) Probabilistic diffusion tractography with multiple fibre orientations: What can we gain? Neurolmage 34:144-155. 4. Johansen-Berg H & Behrens T E (2006) Just pretty pictures? What diffusion tractography can add in clinical neuroscience. Curr Opin Neurol 19:379-3835. 5. Johansen-Berg H, Behrens T E, Robson M D et al (2004) Changes in connectivity profiles define functionally distinct regions in human medial frontal cortex. Proc Natl Acad USA 101:13335—13340. 6. Klein J C, Behrens T E, Robson M D et al (2007) Connectivity-based parcellation of human cortex using diffusion MRI: Establishing reproducibility, validity and observer independence in BA 44/45 and SMA/pre- SMA. Neuroimage 34:204-211. 7. Behrens T E & Johansen-Berg H (2005) Relating connectional architecture to grey matter function using diffusion imaging. Phil Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 360:903-911. B. INFECTIOUS DISEASES RESEARCH Bl. Hepatitis C: Design and construction of novel synthetic receptors to study infectious diseases and replace animals Current therapy for chronic hepatitis related to hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is based on the use of interferon. However, its effect on virus clearance rates is insufficient. Chimpanzees are the only experimental animals susceptible to infection with HCV, although they do not develop the pattern of illness seen in humans. Studies to develop anti-viral therapy or to understand the life cycle of this virus have been hampered for a long time by the lack of an effective in vitro viral culture system. Recently a sub genomic replica of a strain of HCV (JFH-1) isolated from a patient with culminant hepatitis has been found to replicate efficiently in cell culture, leading to an all-important HCV infection system in cultured cells. In further developments, the full HCV life cycle can now be studied in vitro but it has relatively limited use when faced with naturally occurring virus isolates, since it relies on in vitro transcribed templates of HCV. The next key step to replacing chimpanzee studies would be a robust cell-based approach for the propagation of naturally occurring infectious HCV particles. Some researchers have pioneered the concept of developing an artificial receptor to facilitate uptake of an infectious virus. In 1996, they created a synthetic receptor for foot and mouth disease virus that permitted infection following binding [1]. This study demonstrated the first production of a totally synthetic cell-surface receptor for a virus. The approach will be useful for studying virus interactions and, the scientists suggest, for the development of safer vaccines against viral pathogens of animals and humans. They are seeking funding to create a synthetic HCV receptor that will be expressed in human hepatoma cell lines, which would enable studies of the binding, internalisation and replication of naturally occurring HCV strains. If successful the model would be a significant advance, also permitting a robust cost-effective screening of drugs against this chronic disease, without the use of animals.