Essen.
The immunologist Prof. Matthias Gunzer explains the meaning and purpose of animal experiments – and why experiments with mice are so important for humans.
Scientists need to explain science better. Finds Prof. Matthias Gunzer, who was also a guest in the WAZ video talk for this reason: In the format “Ruhr area, we have to talk”, the immunologist from Essen spoke to editor-in-chief Andreas Tyrock about the necessity of animal experiments for medicine. And revealed why strokes have very similar consequences, whether in mice or humans. And why scientists know that they actually know nothing.
The 53-year-old heads the Institute for Experimental Immunology at the University of Duisburg-Essen, and also has a somewhat unwieldy title in honorary post: He is Chairman of the Commission for Species-Appropriate Animal Experiments in the German Society for Immunology. A contradiction?, editor-in-chief Tyrock asks him: “Animal experiments are repulsive, how can they be species-appropriate?” Research, explains Gunzer, spends a lot of energy on making mice and mole rats “feel good”. They are kept in special cages, employing animal caretakers “who are busy all day” checking the housing conditions. Do everything to ensure “that the animal doesn’t notice anything”, before intervention they would “be anaesthetized, sleep soundly and don’t notice anything about the matter itself”.
Applications for animal experiments “with the utmost accuracy”
At the beginning of the year, the association “Doctors against animal experiments” accused the researchers in Essen of conducting particularly cruel experiments that served no purpose. A misconception, replies Prof. Gunzer. Each attempt is preceded by a detailed application and an evaluation by an ethics committee. It must be proven which comparable experiments have already been carried out worldwide. In addition, “show that nothing like this has ever been done” and “with the greatest accuracy”. Sometimes it takes a year for approval, the regulations are very strict, but for scientists it is an “excellent” regulation. “If you can’t explain the purpose, there’s no authorization and you won’t do it.”
In general, no animal experiment is taken lightly. “We always think about the patients for whom we do research.” It’s not about satisfying one’s own curiosity, there is always a concrete application in the background. Because that is the meaning of the work for medicine: to understand the human defense system, to develop therapies against diseases. “Every prescription drug and even non-prescription drugs such as aspirin have been tested in animals.” If the “doctors against animal testing” were consistent, says Gunzer, they should “not prescribe drugs that have been developed in this way”.
“Common Infection Can Kill a Stroke Patient”
An example: According to Gunzer, the immunologists in Essen are working on two major topics. In addition to cancer, strokes are still the main cause of death worldwide. The expert knows that many patients do not die from the stroke itself, but from a subsequent infection. A “banal infection that would not affect healthy people at all can kill a stroke patient.” However, the scientists found out what could be the cause of this in mice: “We have understood why the immune system collapses after a stroke” – and have also discovered a new way of attacking a therapy.
Prof. Gunzer rejects the frequent accusation that the results cannot be transferred to humans: “That is not true at all here. We have found 100% coverage of the results from animals in patients.” The results could never have been obtained using individual cells, if only because brain cells and, in the case of the immune system, intestinal cells “cannot be placed together in a Petri dish”. “There is no alternative, you can only solve that through animal testing.”
Corona vaccination: developed “at the speed of light”
This also applies to research on vaccines. Which has come a long way, if you consider: 50 million people around the world died from the Spanish flu, “you couldn’t do anything, not even analyze it, understand who the opponent is at all”. Corona came 100 years later, and science, says Gunzer, reacted “at the speed of light”: after four weeks the first test, after eleven months “completely new vaccines”, billions of immunizations – “sensational, a shining example of what science can do” . But this success is based “on decades of basic research, including animal experiments”.
Researcher knows: “We actually don’t know anything yet”
And yet, Matthias Gunzer admits, there are still many unanswered questions. “The system is incredibly complex,” says the scientist, “we don’t really know anything yet.” So many processes in every tiny cell, and billions of them in one body: “We still have no idea what exactly is going on there. We’re scratching the surface, we’re still far from fully understanding it.” There are an estimated 30,000 diseases in the world, but only 8 to 10,000 of them have been treated so far. In the case of certain brain tumors or types of cancer of the pancreas, one can still do “nothing, nothing at all”. You can tell that the researcher is concerned about this: “We still have a lot of work to do, we’re not finished yet.”
Scientists are currently working on immunotherapies: finished antibodies that act like drugs and can help the immune system to slow down cancer. In addition to vaccinations against cancer, the first successes are already there, “maybe it’s even faster now”. Because the challenges are not getting any smaller. To this day, Gunzer says, we still don’t fully understand “why we can’t vaccinate against HIV.” However, research now has a battery of active ingredients that could also help against other infections. And, he’s under no illusions: “The next pandemic is around the corner, we have to be prepared for it.”
Explain atomic physics with apples and pears
This is one of the reasons why further research is needed – and this research needs to be explained. Colleagues who prefer to remain silent in the laboratory and say their work is too complicated, Gunzer likes to reply: “Then you didn’t really understand it yourself.” Everyone can find images that make science understandable for laypeople. “You can also explain atomic physics with apples and pears. That should be our claim.” Gunzer wants to “explain what we do. How we do it and why”.
In the Ruhr area, the head of the institute thinks there are “great opportunities, super universities, incredible potential”. Because one naturally tries to use as few animals as possible for experiments, one must, for example, “gain as much information as possible from an experiment”. For that, says Gunzer, they needed a better microscope in Essen. A hundred times better. “We’re really good at that in the Ruhr area, we can build something like that!” And so we did it – and thus massively reduced the number of animals.
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