Department of Neuroscience, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.
Banbury Center, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York.
Biol Psychiatry. 2018 Oct 1;84(7):542-545. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2018.02.010. Epub 2018 Feb 22.
Modeling aspects of the human condition in animals has provided invaluable information on the physiology of all organ systems and has assisted in the development of virtually all new therapeutics. Research in cardiovascular disease, cancer, immunology, and other disciplines has benefited substantially from the availability of animal models that capture aspects of specific human diseases and that have been used effectively to advance new treatments. By comparison, animal models for neurological and psychiatric disorders have faced several unique obstacles. This paper highlights topics covered in a recent Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory meeting charged with examining the status of animal models for mental illness. The consensus of the conference is that despite the difficulties inherent with modeling brain disorders in animals, when used judiciously-fully cognizant that models of specific behavioral or biological aspects cannot completely recapitulate the human disorder-animal research is crucial for advancing our understanding of neuropsychiatric disease.
在动物中模拟人类状况的各个方面为所有器官系统的生理学提供了宝贵的信息，并为几乎所有新疗法的发展提供了帮助。心血管疾病、癌症、免疫学和其他学科的研究从可用的动物模型中受益匪浅，这些模型捕捉了特定人类疾病的各个方面，并被有效地用于推进新的治疗方法。相比之下，用于神经和精神疾病的动物模型面临着几个独特的障碍。本文重点介绍了最近在冷泉港实验室举行的一次会议所涵盖的主题，该会议旨在检查精神疾病动物模型的现状。会议的共识是，尽管在动物中模拟脑部疾病存在固有困难，但只要明智地使用——充分认识到特定行为或生物学方面的模型不能完全再现人类疾病——动物研究对于推进我们对神经精神疾病的理解至关重要。
