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HEALTH & SCIENCE WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2014 Antibiotics may help animals spread salmonella WASHINGTON: Giving animals antibiotics may make them sicker and could lead some to spread even more salmonella than they would have otherwise, US researchers experimenting on mice said Monday. The findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences could point to a new concern over feeding healthy livestock low doses of antibiotics to help them grow and stave off common illness- POLAND: In an undated handout picture released by the British POLAND: Bulgarian man Darek Fidyka, who suffered a severed spinal column that rendered es, a practice that critics say may fuel drug-resis- Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Professor Wagih El-Masri, a surgeon and him paralyzed from the chest down, talks with Polish neurosurgeon Pawel Tabakow and tant superbugs. founder of spinal injury charity SPIRIT, watches as Bulgarian man Darek Geoff Raisman (left), chair of neural regeneration at University College London’s Institute of Researchers at Stanford University School of Fidyka walks with the aid of leg-braces and parallel bars at the Akron Neuro- Neurology.— AFP photos Medicine gave oral antibiotics to mice infected Rehabilitation Center in Wroclaw. with Salmonella typhimurium, a bacteria which can cause food poisoning. A small minority, known as “superspreaders” because they had Paralyzed man walks again been shedding high amounts of salmonella in their feces for weeks, remained healthy. It appears neither the antibiotic or the illness had after breakthrough treatment much effect on them. “The rest of the mice got sicker instead of better and, oddly, started shed- ding like superspreaders,” the university said in a ‘To me, this is more impressive than a man walking on the Moon’ statement describing the research. A previous Stanford study found that giving LONDON: A paralyzed Bulgarian man can walk again after above and below the injury, enabled damaged fibers to on muscle. Three months later, Fidyka was able to take his non-superspreader mice an oral antibiotic led to receiving revolutionary treatment in Poland in a breakthrough reconnect, although other researchers have reacted more first steps with the aid of parallel bars and leg braces. He can a rapid increase in salmonella shed in their feces. hailed by one of the British scientists responsible as “more skeptically. “What we’ve done is establish a principle, nerve now walk outside using a frame and has also recovered This study showed that giving streptomycin, an impressive than a man walking on the Moon”. Darek Fidyka fibers can grow back and restore function, provided we give some feeling in his bladder and bowel. antibiotic, to salmonella-infected mice, led most was paralyzed from the chest down following a knife attack in them a bridge,” said Geoff Raisman, chair of neural regenera- “I think it’s realistic that one day I will become independ- of them to begin shedding high levels of the 2010, but can now walk using a frame after nerve cells from tion at University College London’s Institute of Neurology, ent,” he said. “What I have learned is that you must never give pathogen in both their gut and their feces. Most his nose were transplanted into his severed spinal column, who led the British research team working on the joint proj- up but keep fighting, because some door will open in life.” of the treated mice also appeared sicker after the according to research published in the journal Cell ect. The research was funded by the UK Stem Cell Foundation antibiotics. “They lost weight, had ruffled fur and Transplantation on Tuesday. “To me, this is more impressive than a man walking on and the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation (NSIF), set up by hunched up the in corners of their cages,” said “When there’s nothing, you can’t feel almost half of your the Moon. I believe this is the moment when paralysis can be chef David Nicholls after his son Daniel was paralyzed in a Denise Monack, associate professor of microbiol- body. You’re helpless, lost,” the patient, who is now recovering reversed.” Tabakow said it was “amazing to see how regener- 2003 swimming accident. NSIF has given £1 million ($1.6 mil- ogy and immunology and the study’s senior at the Akron Neuro-Rehabilitation Center in Wroclaw, told the ation of the spinal cord, something that was thought impos- lion, 1.26 million euros) to researchers in London and author. BBC’s Panorama program. “When it begins to come back, you sible for many years, is becoming a reality”. But other scien- £240,000 to the team in Poland. Both camps say they will not feel you’ve started your life all over again, as if you are reborn,” tists were more cautious, saying it was important to await seek to profit from the research. “They also began to shed much larger quanti- the 40-year-old said. It’s an incredible feeling, difficult to the results of clinical testing with more cases. “We have to be “It would be my proudest boast if I could say that no ties of bacteria.” The same thing happened when describe.” very prudent,” said Alain Privat from France’s health and patient had had to pay one penny for any of the informa- the mice were given another antibiotic, neomycin, Specialist olfactory unsheathing cells (OECs), which form medical research institute Inserm. Privat said it was not yet tion we have found,” said Raisman. NSIF said it would suggesting that the medicine had the opposite of part of the sense of smell, were used in the treatment as they clear whether it was really the transplant itself that allowed acquire any patents and make them freely available. “When its intended effect. “If this holds true for livestock are pathway cells, enabling nearby nerve fibers to be continu- the spinal cord to function again or whether this was a Dan had his accident I made him a promise that, one day, as well-and I think it will-it would have obvious ally regenerated. Pawel Tabakow, consultant neurosurgeon at byproduct of the operations. “Only a real (clinical) trial would he would walk again,” Nicholls told the BBC. “The results public health implications,” Monack said. “We Wroclaw University, led a team of surgeons in removing one show this,” he said. with Darek show we are making significant progress need to think about the possibility that we’re not of the patient’s olfactory bulbs before transplanting cultured towards that goal.” The UK Stem Cell Foundation said the only selecting for antibiotic-resistant microbes, cells into the spinal cord in the treatment’s two crucial opera- ‘Door will open in life’ team was now searching for the best source of olfactory but also impairing the health of our livestock and tions. For two years after sustaining the injury, Fidyka showed unsheathing cells and developing prototype nanofibre bio- increasing the spread of contagious pathogens no sign of recovery despite intensive five-hour physiothera- materials on which transplanted OECs could grow. They among them and us.” — AFP ‘Paralysis can be reversed’ py sessions. The first signs of improvement came three hope to raise enough money to hold clinical trials on 10 The scientists involved think that the cells, implanted months after the surgery, when his left thigh began putting patients in Britain and Poland. — AFP Chewing too much hassle? Japan’s got just the thing TOKYO: Are you worried that you’re “kamu” (“to chew” in Japanese) — just not chewing enough to keep uses sensors mounted inside ear your mind and body in tip-top con- pieces to carefully measure each dition? Then never fear: Japan has bite. invented something to help you It bleeps and flashes as it sends count your bites. A small-scale the data to a smartphone app, which Japanese study last year, among oth- can be used to track exactly how ers, suggested there was a connec- much chewing a user has done in tion between chomping and cogni- any given period, should that need tive function, and the belief in a link ever arise. The technology can also between chewing and health is be used to switch on or off music on widely held in Japan. Now a Tokyo- phone by chewing in a certain pat- based gum-maker has created ear- tern, Lotte says, while admitting phones that record the number of mastering the skill takes a bit of times you move your jaw, along with practice. the speed and strength of each bite. Hiroshima City University engi- “Chewing, unless you make a con- neer Kazuhiro Taniguchi, whose ear- scious effort, can be seen as a bit of a switch technology was used in the pain,” Katsumi Kawai, chief market- device said he was pleased with how ing officer of Lotte said, adding the it had turned out, adding that the firm has noticed some people con- gadget had “satisfying functions”. sider chewing gum to be something Lotte has no plans to commercialize of a hassle. “As a gum maker, this is a the Rhythmi-Kamu, but would like to JAPAN : Members of HKT48, a girls pop group, (from left) Natsumi Matsuoka, Sakura Miyawaki, JAPAN: A model shows off Lotte’s prototype ‘Rhythmi- great concern,” he said. Lotte’s persuade research institutions to use Haruka Kodama, Rino Sashihara, Mio Tomonaga and Madoka Moriyasu, pose in a photo ses- Kamu’, ear phones that count and record the number of “Rhythmi-Kamu”-a pun on the it to advance studies on human sion to promote Lotte’s prototype ‘Rhythmi-Kamu’, ear phones that count and record the num- times you chew during its press preview.

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