'It has to be wrong. I don't know why it is wrong, but it has
to be wrong.' So said the reviewers of major journals such as Science and
Nature, who were unable to find scientific errors, but nevertheless chose to
reject a paper demonstrating profoundly different genomic and biochemical
responses between mice models and human patients suffering from important
inflammatory diseases. The New York Times stated earlier this week that, "For
decades, mice have been the species of choice in the study of human diseases.
But now, researchers report evidence that the mouse model has been totally
misleading for at least three major killers -- sepsis, burns and trauma. As a
result, years and billions of dollars have been wasted following false leads,
they say. ... Sepsis, a potentially deadly reaction that occurs as the body tries
to fight an infection, afflicts 750,000 patients a year in the United States,
kills one-fourth to one-half of them, and costs the nation $17 billion a year.
It is the leading cause of death in intensive-care units. ... [This study] helps
explain why every one of nearly 150 drugs tested at a huge expense in patients
with sepsis has failed. The drug tests all were based on studies in mice. And
mice, it turns out, can have something that looks like sepsis in humans, but is
very different from the condition in humans." This revolutionary new paper is at
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/02/07/1222878110
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