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The Role of Planaria as a Model Organism in Understanding Drug Effects and Human Health

Introduction

Studying how drugs affect living things involves examining simple animals like planaria worms. Studying how people react to medicine can show how much a drug helps body tissue heal. This could be useful for helping human tissue repair and grow. Studying how calming drugs affect planaria’s healing helps us understand how they might affect the human body. This information is really important for making healthcare better and creating new medicines. Pharmaceutical companies make money by knowing the positive and negative effects of a drug when it becomes available to the public (Deochand et al., 2018). Healthcare workers need to know how medicines affect the body’s ability to heal and grow to take better care of patients. New information tells us that it is important to know how drugs work when testing them on people. Studying how drugs affect planaria worms can help us learn how they might affect people, especially how they help heal and grow new tissue. This paper discusses why studying planaria’s ability to regrow body parts helps understand how drugs work (Mohammed et al., 2018). Studying planaria can help people stay healthy. This study is important because it helps to create new drugs, healthcare choices, and basic scientific knowledge.

Planaria as an Animal Model

Planaria are a type of flat, worm-like animals. Because science allows us to utilize these fascinating tools, learning is enjoyable. Animals that are flat and have three cell layers are called flatworms. They belong to the Tricladida category in the group Rhabditophora (Deochand et al., 2018). Since they lack a bodily cavity, they are known as acoelomates. Although they may reside anywhere, rivers and lakes are frequently home to them (Justine et al., 2018).

Planaria are excellent for research and have several beneficial traits that make them highly useful for science. Planaria have the advantage of being affordable and simple to locate with little help. They are available on the market at competitive costs. Planaria are different from other living things because they can survive in many places without needing specific things or difficult conditions. This makes it easy to study and learn about many different things. According to Mohammed et al. (2018), analysts can use a flexible model more easily and at a lower cost because it considers what people need. More people can study planaria without needing a lot of supplies or tools. Planaria helps study in many different areas. They give researchers a good and cheap way to study.

Neoblasts are special cells that help planaria grow back to the body parts they lost. They are a great example to study how things grow back. These creatures can grow a whole new body from small pieces. Scientists can now do different tests and experiments more easily. When given drugs like cocaine, marijuana, amphetamines, and morphine, planaria show different actions. Studies have shown this. Planaria are very sensitive to how they act, which makes them good for studying how poisons and chemicals affect them and how they react to them. Researchers study planaria to see how chemicals can hurt unborn babies. They are also used to study how chemicals can affect behavior. They are good for studying how chemicals affect living things because they can live in different places and react to different substances in certain ways.

Drug Experiment on Planaria

Understanding why people become addicted is still a difficult problem for scientists to solve. Studies have shown that addiction can be passed down from parents to children. About 40-60% of the risk of becoming addicted comes from our genes (Fields & Levin, 2018). Children of parents who drink much alcohol are much more likely to become addicted to alcohol themselves, about 3-5 times more likely than children of parents who do not drink a lot. How genes are turned on or off could be influenced by epigenetic mechanisms, which might be very important in this phenomenon. Using much cocaine for a short period can make genes in your body start working again, and this could change how your brain works. Because planaria have a complicated nervous system, head structures similar to vertebrates, and neurotransmitters like vertebrates, scientists are interested in studying how genetics relates to addiction in these organisms (Pagán, 2017). These flatworms are used to study drug abuse and behavior. They show addictive behavior when given drugs, just like animals. They can also start relying on the drugs and have symptoms when they stop taking them.

Sugar, which is usually seen as harmless, can cause addictive behaviors similar to other addictive substances. Planaria that are given sugar water show a preference for where they got the sugar water. This is similar to how people behave when they are addicted to drugs. Preference to sugar demonstrates how, when exposed to sugar, flatworms behave as though they are hooked to it. Sugar and addictive behaviors in planaria are linked, demonstrating the potent influence that drugs may have on an organism’s behavior. This shows how small things can cause drug addiction. The discovery that CPP is in sugary foods changes our thoughts about sugar. The study shows how drugs and behaviors can affect each other, and this helps us understand addiction better. This means we should reconsider how we view things that seem safe and how they can make us want to do them repeatedly. Studying how planaria react can help us understand that addiction is complex. It means that different things can make you addicted in similar ways, even if you do not realize it at first. This helps us understand how addiction affects animals and plants.

Caffeine is something that can make you more awake and aware. People often use it to stay focused and alert. They tried it out on flatworms in research. Scientists studied how caffeine affects flatworms because it can have various effects on the body. It was interesting that when planaria were given a small amount of caffeine for a short time, it affected their body functions. The planaria changed how they used oxygen when they were given some caffeine. According to Mohammed et al. (2018), it was found that caffeine affects how much oxygen the body uses, just like it affects how fast an animal’s body works. Mohammed et al. (2018) found that coffee can affect how fast different animals use their energy. This means that even simple animals like planaria can be similarly affected by coffee. This experiment found a new and interesting way coffee affects the body processes of planaria, especially how they use oxygen. Caffeine affects the metabolism of big animals in the same way it affects planaria. This shows that caffeine greatly affects the body, so we should study how it affects different living things.

Scientists have also studied planaria to see how they can learn and remember things because of how their brains work and their addictive behavior. These flatworms have shown that they can keep what they have learned, even remembering things after growing a new brain after decapitating (Deochand et al., 2018). Interestingly, research on memory transfer through cannibalism in flatworms has caused much debate. Early tests by Mohammed et al. (2018) showed that planaria could pass on memories by eating each other, but people did not believe it. However, later research suggested that memories could be transferred between different species and within the same species. New studies show that memory can be passed through eating others of the same species. This has made people curious about this topic again. However, we still do not know if memories stay the same in genetic copies after their head is cut off.

Correlation between The Planaria And Humans

The connection seen between how planaria react to drugs and how it can affect them shows us more about how genetics might be linked to addiction in people. Genes play a big role in addiction, making up about 40-60% of the risk. This means that addiction can be passed down in families (Deochand et al., 2018). Alcohol addiction is three to five times more common in children whose parents overuse it. It appears that some genes increase an individual’s susceptibility to addiction. It appears that certain individuals are predisposed to developing drug addictions. This may be crucial information for researching medication usage in humans.

Understanding how characteristics impact addiction in planaria, a kind of flatworm, can aid in our understanding of how addictive behaviors function in humans. Planaria are tiny, flat worms that use comparable chemicals in their brains to communicate and whose brains resemble those of vertebrate creatures. Scientists are studying Planaria to learn more about the role that heredity plays in addiction. According to research, Planaria are flatworms that resemble animals with backbones in behavior and can develop drug addictions. They also experience physical dependence and withdrawal symptoms when exposed to drugs (Pagán, 2017). The study found a surprising link between sugar and addictive behaviors in planaria, which goes against what we thought about harmless things, showing that they could make organisms act like they are addicted to drugs. Studying how planaria react gives us clues about the complex nature of addiction. It shows that addiction works differently in different organisms.

Also, studying planaria’s reaction to caffeine can give us information about how it affects the body, which could be important for understanding how it affects humans. Small amounts of caffeine change the amount of oxygen planaria use, which shows that caffeine affects their metabolism, just like it does in higher animals (Deochand et al., 2018). This shows that caffeine can affect how living things use energy, including simple animals like planaria.

Studying how planaria react to different substances could help us understand how addiction works in people. This research helps us understand how drugs can affect how our bodies heal and grow new tissue. It will help scientists develop new drugs that can help us heal faster and repair damaged tissue. This helps us understand more about how genetics can affect addiction and how drugs can affect our bodies. It could help us find new ways to treat addiction and improve people’s health.

Stakeholders

Many different people and companies, including drug companies, healthcare workers, and scientists, are interested in the results of malaria research. Each group involved has a strong reason to use planaria as a model because it can help us learn more about how drugs affect the body and how humans heal their tissues. Pharmaceutical companies are one of the biggest beneficiaries of planaria research. Using planaria models helps these companies test if drugs work and have any bad effects at the beginning stages. Studying how drugs affect planaria helps companies pick out the most promising ones quickly and without spending too much money (Mohammed et al., 2018). The information learned from the planaria models helps make better decisions when developing new drugs. This could make the process of getting new treatments to patients faster.

Doctors and other healthcare workers are very interested in the results of planaria research. Knowing how drugs can affect how our body fixes itself is helpful for doctors and other healthcare professionals. Insights from experiments with planaria help doctors make better decisions about treatments, care for patients, and predict drug problems (Zeng et al., 2018). Healthcare professionals can use information from planaria studies to make treatments better for people to have better results and fewer side effects.

Scientists from different fields see planaria as a very important tool for understanding how drugs work before testing them on people. Drug development is accelerated by the use of planaria in early studies to help understand the effects and processes of drugs (Fields & Levin, 2018). This data assists scientists in enhancing the manufacturing process of pharmaceuticals, identifying potential issues with them, and devising strategies to lower hazards before human testing. Using planaria models, researchers may better relate what they discover in the lab to practical applications (Fields & Levin, 2018). They help us know how medicines can affect our health. These groups think the planaria discovery is important because it can affect how medicines are made and rules for healthcare. Studying planaria helps scientists check if medicines are safe before using them on people. This makes it safer to make drugs and increases the chances of finding good drugs to test on patients. Also, what we learn from planaria can help doctors choose better patient treatments. This means they can give better care by understanding how medicines work in the body and giving treatment that is more specific to each person.

Conclusion

Studying how planaria responds to different substances can help us learn about the genes that cause addiction and how it can impact people’s health. There is much proof that genes have a big influence, about 40-60%, in making people more likely to get addicted to things. This shows that genes have a strong influence on addiction traits. Children of parents who drink much alcohol are 3-5 times more likely to become addicted themselves. This shows that addiction can be passed down in families. Planaria look like animals with backbones in their brain structures and the chemicals that help their brain cells communicate. This makes them a special animal to study to understand how genetics can cause addiction. Their behavior shows that they are addicted to sugar, similar to animals with backbones. This surprising connection between sugar and addictive behaviors goes against what people usually think about harmless substances. This shows that some things can make people addicted, even if they don’t think they would. It also shows that addiction is a complicated problem that affects different kinds of animals. Planaria’s body reactions to substances, like how caffeine affects how much oxygen they use, are similar to the effects seen in animals with backbones. These connections show how different substances can affect many body parts, suggesting they might also affect how the human body works. Understanding how things are connected helps us create better drugs to help our bodies heal and grow.

References

Deochand, N., Costello, M. S., & Deochand, M. E. (2018). Behavioral research with planaria. Perspectives on Behavior Science41(2), 447-464. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40614-018-00176-w

Fields, C., & Levin, M. (2018). Are planaria individuals? What regenerative biology is telling us about the nature of multicellularity. Evolutionary Biology45(3), 237-247. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11692-018-9448-9

Justine, J. L., Lemarcis, T., Gerlach, J., & Winsor, L. (2018). First report of the land planarian Endeavouria septemlineata (Hyman, 1939)(Platyhelminthes, Tricladida, Continenticola, Geoplanidae) in French Polynesia. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/295289

Mohammed Jawad, R. A., Hutchinson, C. V., & Prados, J. (2018). Dissociation of place preference and tolerance responses to sucrose using a dopamine antagonist in the planarian. Psychopharmacology235, 829-836. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00213-017-4801-8

Pagán, O. R. (2017). Planaria: an animal model that integrates development, regeneration and pharmacology. International Journal of Developmental Biology61(8-9), 519. https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/bio_facpub/53/

Zeng, A., Li, H., Guo, L., Gao, X., McKinney, S., Wang, Y., … & Alvarado, A. S. (2018). Prospectively isolated tetraspanin+ neoblasts are adult pluripotent stem cells underlying planaria regeneration. Cell173(7), 1593-1608. https://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674(18)30583-X.pdf

 

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