scholarly journals What’s not in the news headlines or titles of Alzheimer disease articles? #InMice

PLoS Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. e3001260
Author(s):  
Marcia Triunfol ◽  
Fabio C. Gouveia
Keyword(s):  
Animal Models ◽  
Alzheimer Disease ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Biological Source ◽  
Scientific Papers ◽  
Twitter Account ◽  
News Headlines

There is increasing scrutiny around how science is communicated to the public. For instance, a Twitter account @justsaysinmice (with 70.4K followers in January 2021) was created to call attention to news headlines that omit that mice, not humans, are the ones for whom the study findings apply. This is the case of many headlines reporting on Alzheimer disease (AD) research. AD is characterized by a degeneration of the human brain, loss of cognition, and behavioral changes, for which no treatment is available. Around 200 rodent models have been developed to study AD, even though AD is an exclusively human condition that does not occur naturally in other species and appears impervious to reproduction in artificial animal models, an information not always disclosed. It is not known what prompts writers of news stories to either omit or acknowledge, in the story’s headlines, that the study was done in mice and not in humans. Here, we raised the hypothesis that how science is reported by scientists plays a role on the news reporting. To test this hypothesis, we investigated whether an association exists between articles’ titles and news’ headlines regarding the omission, or not, of mice. To this end, we analyzed a sample of 623 open-access scientific papers indexed in PubMed in 2018 and 2019 that used mice either as models or as the biological source for experimental studies in AD research. We found a significant association (p < 0.01) between articles’ titles and news stories’ headlines, revealing that when authors omit the species in the paper’s title, writers of news stories tend to follow suit. We also found that papers not mentioning mice in their titles are more newsworthy and significantly more tweeted than papers that do. Our study shows that science reporting may affect media reporting and asks for changes in the way we report about findings obtained with animal models used to study human diseases.

Constructing undesirables: A critical discourse analysis of othering of Fulani nomads in the Ghanaian news media

2021 ◽  
pp. 175048132098209
Author(s):  
Mark Nartey ◽  
Hans J Ladegaard
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Analysis Framework ◽  
News Reporting ◽  
Media Attention ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Content Organization

The activities of Fulani nomads in Ghana have gained considerable media attention and engendered continuing public debate. In this paper, we analyze the prejudiced portrayals of the nomads in the Ghanaian news media, and how these contribute to an exclusionist and a discriminatory discourse that puts the nomads at the margins of Ghanaian society. The study employs a critical discourse analysis framework and draws on a dataset of 160 articles, including news stories, editorials and op-ed pieces. The analysis reveals that the nomads are discursively constructed as undesirables through an othering process that centers on three discourses: a discourse of dangerousness/criminalization, a discourse of alienization, and a discourse of stigmatization. This anti-nomad/Fulani rhetoric is evident in the choice of sensational headlines, alarmist news content, organization of arguments, and use of quotations. The paper concludes with a call for more balanced and critical news reporting on the nomads, especially since issues surrounding them border on national cohesion and security.

Recent advances in animal model experimentation in autism research

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 264-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mousumi Tania ◽  
Md. Asaduzzaman Khan ◽  
Kun Xia
Keyword(s):  
Animal Model ◽  
Animal Models ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Behavioral Alterations ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Adult Mice ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Model Study ◽  
Disease Biology ◽  
Animal Model Study

ObjectiveAutism, a lifelong neuro-developmental disorder is a uniquely human condition. Animal models are not the perfect tools for the full understanding of human development and behavior, but they can be an important place to start. This review focused on the recent updates of animal model research in autism.MethodsWe have reviewed the publications over the last three decades, which are related to animal model study in autism.ResultsAnimal models are important because they allow researchers to study the underlying neurobiology in a way that is not possible in humans. Improving the availability of better animal models will help the field to increase the development of medicines that can relieve disabling symptoms. Results from the therapeutic approaches are encouraging remarkably, since some behavioral alterations could be reversed even when treatment was performed on adult mice. Finding an animal model system with similar behavioral tendencies as humans is thus vital for understanding the brain mechanisms, supporting social motivation and attention, and the manner in which these mechanisms break down in autism. The ongoing studies should therefore increase the understanding of the biological alterations associated with autism as well as the development of knowledge-based treatments therapy for those struggling with autism.ConclusionIn this review, we have presented recent advances in research based on animal models of autism, raising hope for understanding the disease biology for potential therapeutic intervention to improve the quality of life of autism individuals.

Expression of Metallothionein-I, -II, and -III in Alzheimer Disease and Animal Models of Neuroinflammation

2006 ◽  
Vol 231 (9) ◽  
pp. 1450-1458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Hidalgo ◽  
Milena Penkowa ◽  
Carmen Espejo ◽  
Eva M. Martínez-Cáceres ◽  
Javier Carrasco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Models ◽  
Alzheimer Disease

scholarly journals Deafness-in-a-dish: modeling hereditary deafness with inner ear organoids

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel R. Romano ◽  
Eri Hashino ◽  
Rick F. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Animal Models ◽  
Inner Ear ◽  
Auditory System ◽  
Hearing Aids ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Functional Disability ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Hereditary Deafness ◽  
Human Auditory System ◽  
Human Inner Ear

AbstractSensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is a major cause of functional disability in both the developed and developing world. While hearing aids and cochlear implants provide significant benefit to many with SNHL, neither targets the cellular and molecular dysfunction that ultimately underlies SNHL. The successful development of more targeted approaches, such as growth factor, stem cell, and gene therapies, will require a yet deeper understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms of human hearing and deafness. Unfortunately, the human inner ear cannot be biopsied without causing significant, irreversible damage to the hearing or balance organ. Thus, much of our current understanding of the cellular and molecular biology of human deafness, and of the human auditory system more broadly, has been inferred from observational and experimental studies in animal models, each of which has its own advantages and limitations. In 2013, researchers described a protocol for the generation of inner ear organoids from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), which could serve as scalable, high-fidelity alternatives to animal models. Here, we discuss the advantages and limitations of conventional models of the human auditory system, describe the generation and characteristics of PSC-derived inner ear organoids, and discuss several strategies and recent attempts to model hereditary deafness in vitro. Finally, we suggest and discuss several focus areas for the further, intensive characterization of inner ear organoids and discuss the translational applications of these novel models of the human inner ear.

scholarly journals ‘The awesome power of yeast’ in Alzheimer’s disease research

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 130
Author(s):  
Sudip Dhakal
Keyword(s):  
Simple Model ◽  
Animal Models ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Human Cell ◽  
Cell Biology ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Disease Models ◽  
Disease Research ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Technological Platforms

The difficulties in performing experimental studies related to diseases of the human brain have fostered a range of disease models from highly expensive and complex animal models to simple, robust, unicellular yeast models. Yeast models have been used in numerous studies to understand Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathogenesis and to search for drugs targeting AD. Thanks to the conservation of fundamental eukaryotic processes including ageing and the availability of appropriate technological platforms, budding yeast are a simple model eukaryote to assist with understanding human cell biology, offering a platform to study human diseases. This article aims to provide insights from yeast models on the contributions of amyloid beta, a causative agent in AD, and recent research findings on AD chemoprevention.

scholarly journals Resveratrol in Rodent Models of Parkinson’s Disease: A Systematic Review of Experimental Studies

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheng-Fu Su ◽  
Li Jiang ◽  
Xiao-Wen Zhang ◽  
Ashok Iyaswamy ◽  
Min Li
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Animal Models ◽  
Motor Function ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Rodent Models ◽  
Neuroprotective Effects ◽  
Systematic Analysis

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disease featured by progressive degeneration of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons (DA) accompanied with motor function impairment. Accumulating evidence has demonstrated that natural compounds from herbs have potent anti-PD efficacy in PD models. Among those compounds, resveratrol, a polyphenol found in many common plants and fruits, is more effective against PD. Resveratrol has displayed a potent neuroprotective efficacy in several PD animal models. However, there is still no systematic analysis of the quality of methodological design of these studies, nor of their results. In this review, we retrieved and analyzed 18 studies describing the therapeutic effect of resveratrol on PD animal models. There are 5 main kinds of PD rodent models involved in the 18 articles, including chemical-induced (MPTP, rotenone, 6-OHDA, paraquat, and maneb) and transgenic PD models. The neuroprotective mechanisms of resveratrol were mainly concentrated on the antioxidation, anti-inflammation, ameliorating mitochondrial dysfunction, and motor function. We discussed the disadvantages of different PD animal models, and we used meta-analysis approach to evaluate the results of the selected studies and used SYRCLE’s risk of bias tool to evaluate the methodological quality. Our analytical approach minimized the bias of different studies. We have also summarized the pharmacological mechanisms of resveratrol on PD models as reported by the researchers. The results of this study support the notion that resveratrol has significant neuroprotective effects on different PD models quantified using qualitative and quantitative methods. The collective information in our review can guide researchers to further plan their future experiments without any hassle regarding preclinical and clinical studies. In addition, this collective assessment of animal studies can provide a qualitative analysis of different PD animal models, either to guide further testing of these models or to avoid unnecessary duplication in their future research.

Growth: Ode; Then, a Year; and Travis

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Dawn Hall
Keyword(s):  
Real Life ◽  
Cultural Issues ◽  
National Public Radio ◽  
Statutory Rape ◽  
Rural South ◽  
News Stories ◽  
Feminist Ideology ◽  
Short Films ◽  
Cultural Tensions ◽  
News Headlines

This chapter discusses all three of Reichardt’s experimental short films. Each contain elements of feminist ideology highlighting a mixture of social and cultural tensions pulled from news headlines. All three short films share a haptic sensibility via form and content. Ode based on Bobbie Gentry’s song “Ode to Billie Joe” follows an adolescent boy’s struggle with his sexuality, ending in suicide, set in the rural south. Ode is a 48 minute narrative shot on Super-8 and mixes the tension between homosexuality and extreme religious ideologies. Then, A Year is a collage of images with voice-overs discussing real life news stories: the statutory rape case perpetrated by Mary Kay Letourneau and the murder of a woman by her husband. Travis is based on a National Public Radio interview with a mother struggling to understand the loss of her son during the Iraq war. This chapter connects the influence of documentary style realism in all of these early films to her later narrative features as she explores social and cultural issues.

Animal models of damage, repair, and plasticity in the brain

2015 ◽  
pp. 129-134
Author(s):  
Andreas Luft
Keyword(s):  
Animal Models ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Functional Domain ◽  
Variable Degree ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Damage Repair ◽  
The Individual ◽  
New Treatments ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Multidimensional Process

Recovery after a stroke is a multidimensional process depending on the individual deficit. Within each functional domain, spontaneous recovery occurs to a variable degree and can be improved by specific neurorehabilitative interventions. The knowledge about the neurophysiology of the processes that lead to recovery and render neurorehabilitative interventions effective is scarce. Such knowledge, however, would be necessary to find new treatments that can fully exploit the brain’s capacity for recovery. Animal models can be an experimental platform to investigate these mechanisms. But it has to be realized that they oversimplify the human condition. The complexity of motor, cognitive, social, emotional, and other factors contributing to recovery in humans cannot be modelled in animals. The opportunities and caveats of animal models are discussed.

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