Assessing Scientific Soundness and Translational Value of Animal Studies on DPP4 Inhibitors for Treating Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

摘要

The value of animal models to predict human outcomes has been increasingly challenged due to a low rate of translation between preclinical and clinical trials. However, translational failure has been proposed to be at least partly explained by the poor methodological quality of animal studies. We thus retrospectively assessed the predictive value of animal models in Type-2-diabetes research, comparing the same outcome measure (glycaemia) in response to a currently available class of antidiabetic drugs between published clinical trials and animal studies, and assessed methodological quality of the latter. In our sample, both mice and rats performed similarly to humans in response to dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4) inhibitors. These results, while on animal models of just one disease treated with one drug class, suggest current criticism of animal models may not be entirely warranted, though we found a margin for improvement in the research quality of animal studies.