Tiny worms found in ponds and river could help treat schizophrenia
Small flat wolves usually living in ponds, river And rivers can replace laboratory rats in the development of schizophrenia, drug addiction and other treatments. sanity Scientists discover that worms react to certain drugs similar to rodents.
Worms come from a family known as Planaria, some species are considered to be “immortal” because of their unique regenerative abilities, including the ability to renew lost body parts, including all brains.
A team of scientists Reading University He gave worms haloperidol, a drug used to treat mental health, and found that worms became much less activated, just like mice and rats did.
Previous studies used the planar to investigate epilepsy treatments and investigate drug dependence, as flat wolves exhibited symptoms of deprivation symptoms. This new study can help develop treatments for mental health conditions such as schizophrenia and hallucinations.
A 2024 Studies He reported that one of the 69 British adults used anti-psychotic drugs in the long term.
Professor Vitaliy Khutoryanskiy, who pioneered from studying at Reading University, said: “This finding contributes to the increasing evidence that small straight wolves such as Planaria can play a valuable role in how to examine the brain.
Small pond worms can help find new ways of schizophrenia treatment, develop understanding about drug addiction and test new drugs for mental illnesses (Reading University)
According to British government data, 882,000 mouse and 144,060 rats were used in animal research in 2023. 2016 Study The use of rats and mice in neural knowledge increased from 20 percent to 2010 in the 1980s.
Despite their efforts to make the research more ethical, scientists still rely on rodents for the test. Researchers said that the use of flat wolves to examine the brain states can potentially reduce the number of rodents used by scientists.
Professor Khutoryanskiy added: “Every year, one million mouse and rats are used in the UK research, but use Planaria can potentially cut these numbers and still give us better answers for people with serious mental health conditions. It is good for science and is good for animal welfare.”
The research was published in the magazine Pharmaceutical Research.
