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Public Health in Crisis

1:03:51 recording · AUTO · 4 speakers

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Brief overview

Schistosome-infected mice became more anxious, but the study could not link behavior change to the microbiome.

  1. Infected mice were measurably more anxiousIn the open field test they spent almost 85% of the time in the outer boundary versus about 80% for uninfected mice.
  2. The gut-brain link stayed unprovenThe microbiome shifted, but the authors found no direct interaction between behavior and microbiome composition, and no fecal transplant was done.
  3. Aid cuts put deworming and surveillance at riskGAVI and USAID cuts, PEPFAR stopped and drugs stranded in ports threaten early warning systems and programs for neglected tropical disease.
Executive Summary AI
  • Guest Chuck Knirsch describes his board work for the Task Force for Global Health in Atlanta and chairing the World Mosquito Program board in Brazil, where Wolbachia-carrying Aedes aegypti are released to block dengue, Zika and yellow fever.1:03
  • He details cuts to GAVI and USAID, PEPFAR no longer functioning, hundreds of millions of dollars of donated drugs and vaccines stuck in ports, and a five-year plan to hand programs to country ownership by 2030 that was compressed into five minutes after the inauguration.2:31
  • Daniel Griffin then presents a PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases paper, "Does Schistosome Infection Affect Behavior Through the Gut-Brain Axis?", from groups in Tucson, Arizona and Corvallis and Lebanon, Oregon, which infected mice with cercariae, treated them with praziquantel, and ran open field, novel object, marble burying and Morris water maze tests.9:40
  • Infected mice spent more time in the outer boundary, almost 85% against about 80% for uninfected, read as greater anxiety, and showed higher novel-object memory retention at one hour but none at 24 hours, while marble burying showed nothing and the water maze differences had overlapping error bars.24:58
  • The authors conclude they did not find a direct interaction between behavior and microbiome composition, and Christina Naula and Daniel both say a fecal transplant experiment is what the work still needs, before the episode closes with a tribute to Dixon, his teaching, his Trichinella and VEGF work, and his role in starting TWiV and TWiP.39:23
Key Quote
“I'm playing for the long game, and I believe in public health.”
— Chuck Knirsch4:17
Key Quote
“There's not really anything conclusive, really, unless I completely missed the point.”
— Christina Naula34:48
Key Quote
“Is that just an epiphenomenon or is that driving the behavior change?”
— Daniel Griffin35:51