Medical breakthrough or false promise? Will this one really save unborn babies?

Like everyone, I always like to learn of any medical progress.  With so much illness and suffering around us it’s wonderful to hear that some might be alleviated.  

I have been disheartened over the past few years however as the media continues to taunt us with “breakthroughs”, only to learn that any potential benefit may be decades away as they now move onto clinical trials. 

What this means is that the “breakthrough” is based on a discovery in animals – which rarely translates to positive outcomes in humans.

In fact, for the past few years I have been collecting articles in the media announcing medical breakthroughs. It will be interesting to look back on those in a decade to see how many actually did come to fruition.

The latest publicity on the discovery by the Victor Chang Institute that Vitamin B3 can prevent miscarriages and birth defects did however look quite promising.

The article began: “Simply taking vitamin B3 supplements can significantly prevent miscarriages and birth defects, a landmark Australian study has found.”   Wow!  “Landmark”.  Must be big. 

My initial understanding was that the discovery had been made by “genomic sequencing to identify potentially pathogenic gene variants in families in which a person had multiple congenital malformations” (which is actually mentioned in the research paper), however reading further, I learn "We gave pregnant mice with the NAD gene knocked out a regular dose of vitamin B3 and we found it prevented miscarriages and birth defects, over-riding the genetic block," Professor Dunwoodie said.”

Woah, go back… pregnant mice?

And then a clinical geneticist from the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, said: “… while vitamin B3 was shown to prevent birth defects in mice, …whether it was the case in humans was yet to be determined.”

Cue disenchantment. Once again, we are titillated by the claim of another breakthrough – one which has the potential of saving the lives of unborn babies and preventing birth defects – only to learn that the discovery is based on mice.

What I found particularly interesting in this case however, is that a medical association - Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists - has publicly announced that “the claims are potentially harmful”.

A spokesperson said:  “The college is warning human studies need to be conducted and that women should not overdose on the vitamin.” "Until randomised controlled studies are done, it is premature to claim a medical breakthrough... excessive consumption of vitamin B3 may be harmful to both the woman and the baby," in a statement.

I wonder if this is an acknowledgement by the medical industry that animal research is not all it’s cracked up to be?

So, like others, I will continue to remain hopeful that we will indeed see medical progress, but I’ll certainly not be holding my breath, nor will I be getting excited over the ongoing claims of “medical breakthroughs” when they are based on animal research.  When I see similar announcements based on human data (and not data from other species) then I will be enthused about a genuine potential breakthrough.

The actual paper is available here.

For further information about animal experiments: Please visit www.HumaneResearch.org.au
Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HumaneResearchAustralia/

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HRAust