 What has been happening in animal research during April and May 2022? In this video, we will explore some of the most interesting and important research stories from the last two months. Firstly, reported in The Guardian, new researchers found that a drug originally developed to treat lung disease has shown promise in treating mice with spinal cord injuries. The drug, which is called AZD1236, was able to reduce swelling of the spinal cord and compared to mice that were not given the drug, they showed an 85% improvement in movement and sensation six weeks after the spinal cord injury. This drug has already been proven safe in humans and it is likely to move into human clinical trials soon. Reported in The New Scientist, research in mice illustrates that an immunotherapy drug to treat the aggressive brain cancer glioblastoma is more effective when coated with protein containing nanoparticles as it can cross the blood-brain barrier more easily. Glioblastoma makes up roughly a third of brain tumor cases and it has a very poor prognosis with just 5% of people surviving for five years after diagnosis. The immunotherapy treatment still needs to be tested in other animals before it can be tested in humans but the team hope that this research will enable the development and implementation of new strategies to treat glioblastoma. Another story from The New Scientist, a new vaccine to protect against Epstein-Barr virus has been successful in animal studies. Epstein-Barr virus is a type of herpes most commonly spread via saliva. It causes glandular fever and it's associated with multiple sclerosis, lymphoma and stomach cancer. When mice genetically engineered with a human like immune system were exposed to the virus after receiving the new vaccine only 17% became infected compared to 100% of mice not pretreated with the antibody vaccine. None of the antibody receiving mice developed lymphomas compared to half of the untreated mice. If proven successful in human trials the vaccine could be administered to children and prevent Epstein-Barr related conditions. However more research will be needed to see if the vaccine protects against multiple sclerosis. Another New Scientist story, chemotherapy to treat cancer can lead to infertility in men as the treatment can kill sperm making cells in the testicles. Adults can have sperm samples frozen before they begin treatment so that they can have biological children through IVF but this option isn't available for prepubescent children who are being treated for cancer. New research has found that rat testicle cells that had been frozen for 23 years were able to produce sperm after being implanted into mice. This research offers insight into long-term frozen tissue and it could give children being treated for cancer a chance to have biological children later in life. Also reported in New Scientist is the discovery that pregnant and lactating female mice release a banana smelling chemical in their urine that's thought to stress out male mice so that they don't kill their pups. Researchers have found that male mice experienced higher levels of stress when placed in cages near heavily pregnant or lactating female mice leading to the discovery of the chemical in their urine. The researchers found that male mice became stressed after being exposed to the chemical even when no female mice were present. Pregnant and lactating females also left more urine marks when they were exposed to unknown males than when they were exposed to the father of their pups. Most likely because male mice are more likely to kill pups that are not their own. These findings have implications for mouse research as removing stresses is essential to sound scientific research. If male mice were housed near to you pregnant females there is a possibility that the resulting stress would affect the results of an experiment. Some 3Rs research this month from the OECD who has approved a new test guideline which offers a non-animal alternative for the assessment of eye irritation and serious eye damage. The guideline is due to be published this summer and it will offer an alternative to the current Draze eye test that is carried out on rabbits. This new test guideline follows another recent 3Rs update from the OECD which was the first complete non-animal skin sensitization test. Reported in New Atlas researchers from Cornell University and the University of British Columbia have used mice to develop a nasal spray that prevents the COVID-19 virus from entering human cells. The nasal spray was effective at reducing signs of disease when administered to mice that had been exposed to the original COVID-19 strain as well as the alpha and delta variants. And lastly reported in Science Daily a team of researchers in Germany have developed a training program using Marmoset Monkeys to help improve the quality and safety of hearing implants. The animals voluntarily complete a series of tests from their home cage environment which involves them hearing different sounds and having to match them to previously learned visual stimuli by clicking on a touchscreen. This allows the researchers to track which sounds the monkeys can hear and discriminate. That's all from us this month. For more detail on the news stories covered in this video go to our website understandinganimalresearch.org.uk and read our monthly news article. Don't forget to like this video and subscribe to our channel. You can also find us on most social media platforms. Thanks for listening.