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On the depression of mice and men
I was listening to NPR last night and caught this bit about a new study of depression drugs:
Scientists have discovered a protein in the brain called P11 that may explain how drugs like Prozac fight depression -- and why they take so long to work.
Continuing...
Researchers have been looking for an explanation by studying precisely how serotonin acts on brain cells. That's hard to do in people. So a team led by Pers Svenningsson of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm looked at mice with signs of depression. When these mice are held by their tails, for example, they struggle less than normal mice.
Svenningsson and a group of U.S. scientists found that removing P11 from the brains of mice caused them to show signs of depression.
Granted, I'm no scientist, but how do we know that the mice were struggling because they weren't as depressed? Who knows, they may have been trying to wrap the string around their necks to kill themselves.
And isn't it quite a leap to say that not struggling is a sign of depression analogous to human depression? Charles thinks there must be a line missing in the article along the lines of: "Scientists determined the symptoms of depression in mice through a combination of tail-hanging and interviews."
This story is more promising if you look between the lines of its ridiculously reductive analogies, though: thank god researchers are looking beyond seratonin and dopamine as isolated triggers for brain functioning.
Posted by carrie on 01/07/2006 | Permalink
Comments
Animal testing is always a fraud perpetrated by the vendors of vivisected animals and the scientists who get big grants for torturing them.
Posted by: rentstrike | Jan 8, 2006 1:36:33 PM
Uhhh... okay rs...
{shakin'head}
Nice post. I did one on the same story and even had something like the same feeling as that with which you closed: They seem to have found serotonins trigger. Excellent! Now what's the trigger's trigger?
Thanks.
Posted by: MBains | Jan 13, 2006 12:26:13 PM
It is actually really funny that you can measure depression-like states in mice by dangling them by their tales. And Carrie's post does point out the ridiculous way in which science is often covered by the media. However, in defense of the researchers involved, a few comments:
-the title of the Science paper was "Alterations in 5-HT1B Receptor Function by p11 in Depression-Like States". "Depression like", not depression. I don't think these authors, one of whom has won the Nobel, really think that what they are studying in mice is the exact same thing.
-as MBains notes above, this work is directly related to serotonin signaling in the brain, so it's not quite the case that these researchers are 'looking beyond' it. Serotonin is a key neuromodulator and it would be surprising if it didn't play a key role in mood regulation.
Finally, while this work can seem ridiculous, I think that anyone who looks into it will realize that it is methodologically sound and has produced valuable results.
Given the serious push from our current federal administration against science generally, and basic research in particular, it's important to remember that results cannot generally be interpreted in isolation. Pharmaceutical companies may be populated by people who don't care about helping anyone; laboratories generally are not.
Posted by: jkeidel | Jan 14, 2006 8:31:54 PM
