Day: August 8, 2004

Role of ATP in Spinal Cord Injuries Revealed

A few weeks ago, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine called for an end to classes in spinal cord injuries that included specific techniques for creating animal models for such injuries. A recent discovery by a team at the University of Rochester Medical Center, however, underscores the important role that animal research plays in understanding complex changes in biological systems.

The short version is that researchers found that ATP — an energy source cells need to stay alive — plays an important role in causing damage to otherwise healthy cells after trauma in the spinal cord. After a spinal cord injury, ATP levels increase up to 100 times normal levels. Undamaged neurons essentially become over-stimulated and they die from metabolic stress.

According to a University of Rochester Medical Center press release,

The finding that ATP is a culprit in causing the devastating damage of spinal cord injury is unexpected. Doctors have known that initial trauma to the spinal cord is exacerbated by a cascade of molecular events over the first few hours that permanently worsen the paralysis for patients. But the finding that high levels of ATP kill healthy cells in nearby regions of the spinal cord that were otherwise uninjured is surprising and marks one of the first times that high levels of ATP have been identified as a cause of injury in the body.

Using an animal model of the disease opposed by PCRM — in this case in rats — the researchers created a compound that blocked the effect of ATP on neurons in the animals’ spinal cords after injury. The result? After six weeks the rats’ spinal cords had recovered most of their function and they were able to walk, run and climb as well as a healthy control group of rats.

Source:

Scientists finger surprise culprit in spinal cord injury. Press Release, University of Rochester Medical Center, July 28, 2004.

Animal Rights Activists Charged With Assault

Animal rights activist William Prusinowski, 19, was arraigned this week and charged with felony second-degree assault after allegedly hitting a member of a family that owns a New York fur store.

According to police, Prusinowski became upset when Kristoforos J. Politis, 19, showed up at a party held at a third party’s home. Prusinowski is affiliated with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and called Politics an “animal murderer” and told him to leave the party.

The Post-Standard reported that,

When Politis began to turn around to leave, Prusinowski punched Politis in the face, knocking him to the ground and causing serious injury to his eye, [Capt. Tom] Winn said.

Prusinowski was originally charged with third-degree assault, but that was upgraded to second-degree assault after Politis had to see an eye surgeon for his injury. Politis also suffered a concussion in the attack, according to police.

Source:

Supporter of PETA charged with assault. Meghan Rubado, The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY), August 7, 2004.

Glaxo CEO: Animal Rights Activists Are "Despicable Cowards"

GlaxoSmithKline chief executive officer Jean-Pierre Garnier recently condemned animal rights activists, saying they were causing his and other firms to divert sizable sums that could be spent on drug discovery and research but must now be spent on security in Great Britain.

Garnier said that his company alone spends tens of millions of pounds on protecting facilities and individuals from animal rights extremists. Garnier said,

This is money that could be spent on research and development of new drugs. Britain has to do more with its police and the judicial system because we are being terrorized.

Garnier also said that a number of firms are considering moving their research staffs out of Great Britain or considering avoiding the country for future investment. He said,

I work hard to bring in investment to the United Kingdom and have talked many times to friends who are in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology businesses about moving here. But there is one issue that exists only in the UK and nowhere else has a comparative effect from extreme actions by animal rights activists.

Glaxo employs nearly 6,000 people in research throughout Great Britain, and Garnier said he takes the threats against those employees personally,

I take it very personally. When you general counsel has to go into hiding in some apartment and has to move out of his house with his young children because he has been threatened, you do take that personally.

Source:

Glaxo chief: animal rights cowards are terrorizing us. Rosie Murray-West, Telegraph (UK), July 28, 2004.

Groups Hope to Block Michigan Mourning Dove Hunting

A coalition of animal rights groups calling itself The Committee to Restore the Dove Shooting Ban is collecting signatures in Michigan to block that state’s recent approval of dove hunting. Earlier this year, Michigan became the 41st state to allow hunting of mourning doves.

The group needs to collect 158,000 signatures by March 2005 in order to place their proposed ban on the November 2005 ballot. The earliest such a ban would go into effect would be 2006, which means dove hunting will almost certainly proceed in Michigan this year and next.

Michigan will likely approve trial hunts for the first few year, these being held in counties that border Indiana and Ohio — both states which already allow dove hunting. That would be followed by studies of the impact of hunting on the dove population before deciding whether to expand the hunt into other parts of Michigan.

Fund for Animals president Michael Markarian told the Detroit Free Press,

Voters will have the final say in whether the bird of peace should be blasted into pieces. There is no reason to shoot them, other than for target practice.

Sources:

Coalition to launch petition drive to ban dove hunting. Bob Gwizdz, Booth Newspapers, August 6, 2004

Opponents of mourning dove hunting to mount petition drive aimed at 2006. Associated Press, August 5, 2004.

Are More People Infected with vCJD Than Previously Thought

A report this week in the Lancet raises the possibility that the number of people infected with variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease — believed to be contracted from exposure to mad cow disease — may be larger than originally thought.

Models that have predicted relatively low total cases rest on a number of assumptions, including that vCJD appeared to infect only a minority of Caucasian with a specific genetic profile. But The Lancet report describes the discovery of vCJD infection in an individual who did not share that specific genetic profile.

The deceased, who died from causes unrelated to vCJD, apparently contracted the disease not from eating infected meat, however, but rather through a blood transfusion from an individual who was infected with vCJD. This is the second known case of transmission of vCJD through blood transfusion.

Second, the deceased’s vCJD infection was located not in the brain or nervous system, but rather in the spleen, explaining why the deceased never developed any symptoms of the disease.

Sources:

Blood Transfusion Linked to 2nd Human Case of Mad Cow. Mark Kaufman, Washington Post, August 5, 2004.

Mad cow may be more widespread. Emma Ross, Associated Press, August 5, 2004.

Scientists warn Britain of possible ‘mad cow’ disease epidemic. Agence-France Press, August 6, 2004.

Japan Anti-Vivisection Association Loses Lawsuit

Japan Today reports that the Japan Anti-Vivisection Association lost a recent lawsuit aimed at preventing the transfer of Japanese monkeys from a zoo to a primate research facility.

The group wanted to stop the transfer of animals from the Maruyama Zoo in Sapporo to the Kyoto University’s Primate Research Institute.

As many as 2,400 monkeys may be transferred as part of the plan. The monkeys are to be used to stock a primate breeding facility to provide primates for biomedical research in Japan.

Sources:

Animal rights group loses suit to halt use of monkeys for research. Japan Today, July 30, 2004.

Stop plans to use Japanese zoo monkeys for lab research. Press Release, International Primate Protection League, October 7, 2003.