Finding alternatives to completely stop animal testing is what people against this activity have been asking for. In the article, “Alternatives to animal testing: A review” by Doke et al, 2015 the author says that animal ethics is an issue as important as human welfare and because of that, alternatives methods for animal testing were proposed to overcome some of the drawbacks associated with animal experiments and avoid the unethical procedures. The alternatives methods are, Computer models, Cells and tissue cultures, Alternative organisms.

• Computer Models

Thanks to the advanced technology, scientists may use computers to “…design new medicines” Then, a series of simulations would predict the possible biological outcomes and “toxic effects of a chemical or potential drug.”  no animal would be dissected when using this method, since the computer-generated simulation would play the role of an animal, in the experiment, to answer the scientific question.

• Cells and tissue cultures

The use of in vitro cells–cells outside the body– and “components like membrane fragments, cellular enzymes, can be used as an alternative for animal testing, to check the toxicity, irritancy, and efficacy of cosmetics, chemicals, and drugs.  This means the cosmetology industry and others don’t need to use animal testing to prove their product’s efficacy, they can use Cells and tissue cultures alternative.

• Alternative organism

Most of the vertebrates animals prone to be used in animal testing are guinea pigs, dogs, monkeys, rabbits, and rats. However, recent studies have shown that the use of different organisms can replace experimental animals. The following table shows some of the alternative organisms.

Alternative organism	Remarks
Prokaryotes
Escherichia coli	Model for molecular and genetic studies
Bacillus subtilis	Model for cellular differentiation
Caulobacter crescentus

“Table 1. Selected examples of organisms as alternatives for the laboratory use of animals.” Doke et al.

At this point in the article, the author continues to inform about the alternatives, but in this case, about the Lower vertebrates, Invertebrates, and Microorganisms asalternatives for vertebrate animals, animals with a segmented backbone. For the reason that the use of these animals in experiments has less ethical problems, due to their short life cycle and the lack of research in their capacity for pain and suffering.

• Lower vertebrates

The use of lower vertebrates, fishes, and amphibians, in the experimental field. For example, Danio rerio fish has a “nearly transparent body during early development, which helps easy visual access to the internal anatomy” and also “zebrafish could be used to ameliorate the disease phenotype and malfunctions in organ development” The author provides an example of why lower vertebrates are an efficient alternative for vertebrates animal testing.

• Invertebrates

Invertebrates are animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column. “They have been used to study various diseases like Parkinson’s disease, endocrine, and memory dysfunction, muscle dystrophy, wound healing, cell aging, programmed cell death, retrovirus biology, diabetes, and toxicological testing.” Doke et al.

• Microorganisms.

The author provides the Saccharomyces cerevisiae microorganism as an example of this alternative method. S.cerevisiae “ helps to understand the fundamental aspects of cellular biology in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases by studying the endogenous or heterologous proteins that lay at the root of these diseases” Doke et al.

      

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1319016413001096