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UCF researchers develop nanoparticle microbe testing

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Found a neat article hear discussing a new nanoparticle technology being developed by University of Central Florida researchers.  The technology will allow doctors to test for hard to find microbes that can lie dormant deep inside tissue of humans for years before reactivating themselves and causing harm to the human body.  A common example of this appears in tuberculosis cases.

The researchers tested their product against Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (MAP), a pathogen that has been linked to the cause of Johne’s Disease in cattle which is similar to Crohn’s Disease in humans.  This is good stuff, it could lead to a new therapy, better testing for Crohn’s in humans, or even a cure to Crohn’s Disease in the future.

University of Central Florida appears to be very active in diseases of the intestine, note another article we covered before about UCF researchers developing a new blood test for Crohn’s which they patented and then sold to a pharmaceutical company.  I was pretty critical of the researchers doing that as it appears that the science is not about the money, only how much, sort of like in politics and just about anything else nowadays I suppose.

MAP and Crohn’s Disease

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I found this interesting article that discusses the relationship between Crohn’s Disease and MAP – Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis.  MAP is related to a microbe that causes tuberculosis, and MAP causes Johne’s Disease in cattle.  When cattle develop Johne’s Disease, they become very ill and more or less waste away like patients with severe Crohn’s Disease.  Speculation about Crohn’s Disease being caused by MAP is not a new idea.

In 2003, William Davis professor at Washington State University, published a paper for the National Academy of Sciences about the staggering rates of infection among cattle over the past 100 years.  When Davis became aware of a similar rise in the number of humans carrying MAP, he could not ignore the link.  This has been a controversial idea among scientists but in 2006 the US Department of Agriculture issued a fact sheet recognizing researchers’ concerns that MAP was being transmitted to humans through undercooked meats, unpasteurized milk, and contaminated water.

In 2008, the American Academy of Microbiology, published a report that listed patients with Crohn’s Disease as being 7 times more likely to have MAP in their gut flora than people without Crohn’s Disease.  It is known that people are susceptible to contracting MAP, but that does not necessarily mean that it will cause a person to develop Crohn’s Disease.  Many scientists believe that such data warrants more studies while others remain skeptical that MAP could be responsible for causing Crohn’s Disease in humans.  This is similar to what occurred in the past where spicy foods and stress were blamed for ulcers until it was finally discovered that the bacteria H. pylori causes ulcers in humans.

William Davis is continuing with his third decade of MAP research in cattle and hopes to develop a safe and effective vaccine that will reduce MAP infection in cattle and consequently in humans.  It is his goal to rid cattle of MAP and if successful, rid humans of Crohn’s Disease.

New blood test for MAP patented, sold, then buried in the sand…

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Read this or this if you want to know what is wrong with the world…  If you do not feel like reading the articles here is a summary.  Researchers at the University of Central Florida discovered a new way to test the bloodstream for MAP (a bacteria) frequently found in Crohn’s Disease patients.  Now instead of simply publishing the results in a peer reviewed journal where the world can benefit from this new knowledge and the researchers can add another notch in the old curriculum vitae, the researchers patented the test and then sold the patent rights to a big pharmaceutical company in Israel for them to use in their own medicine research.

So what? Well, so what is now the cost of that test will go into the price of the medication that the company is producing, and that cost gets passed onto Crohn’s Disease patients.  Not to mention that this new technology will not be useful to others researching Crohn’s Disease.

“Patients will benefit the most because of this breakthrough since it will advance the diagnosis and treatment of Crohn’s disease,” Naser said of the diagnostic technology he created.

I don’t agree, patients would benefit the most if the technology were not patented and then said patent were not sold to a big pharma company.