The Uncertain Future of Research Chimpanzees

Abstract

The otherwise excellent News Focus article by Jon Cohen on the future of “The endangered lab chimp” (26 Jan., p. 450) does not emphasize one compelling reason why studies of captive chimpanzees should continue—the significant differences in their disease patterns, incidence, and severity from those of humans (1). As human and chimpanzee proteins are >99% identical (2), it should be possible to explain some of these surprising disease differences at the molecular level. Thus, more studies are needed not because chimpanzees are good models for human diseases, but rather because they are surprisingly bad models in many instances, for example, HIV infection progressing to AIDS and P. falciparum malaria. Such investigations could adopt approaches similar to those currently used for studying human diseases, and the results would benefit the care of both humans and chimpanzees. The NIH spent many dollars to sequence the chimpanzee genome (2). If the existing captive chimpanzee population is allowed to die out in sanctuaries without adequate funding or facilities for such research, some of the most biomedically valuable benefits of the chimpanzee genome sequencing will never be realized.