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Fresh light thrown on tragic drug trial

Animal tests may have missed danger because monkeys ‘too clean’.

Immunologists have a new theory to explain why the devastating effects of the experimental drug TGN1412 were not spotted in animal tests. The ‘superantibody’ drug put six volunteers in intensive care in a London hospital last March.

Animals used in preclinical tests for TGN1412, researchers now say, lack a crucial set of immune cells because they are deliberately shielded from infections in the lab.

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Posted by Mike Hopkin on January 25, 2007 06:03 PM |

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Besides inmunological considerations, interindividual differences should also be considered inthis case, as not all volunteers had similar problems with the treatment. It would be extremely interesting to see wether any genetic, and/or epigenetic, differences could explain the reaction of the 6 volunteers. Pharmacogenetic considerations should in my view be included as well as investigated in this problem.

Posted by: Julio Benitez | January 29, 2007 11:15 AM

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