Salmonella: Killer or Cancer Cure?

Salmonella Sleuthing: It's Not All Bad by Janice Taylor, Life & Wellness Coach, 50-pound big-time-loser, eternal optimist

With all this talk of toxic and noxious tomatoes and jalapeno peppers, as well as Salmonella poisoning, this Beliefnet blogger, determined to unearth something good about Salmonella, did a bit of salmonella sleuthing.

Salmonella 101

Salmonella is a bacteria. It enters our digestive tract via contaminated food and can cause severe food poisoning. The infection from the bacteria is called Salmonellosis. Hospitalization may be required, depending on the level of dehydration or the very nasty side effects (i.e., diarrhea, fever, abdominal cramps), which bacteria is known to cause.

Salmonellosis symptoms start within 12 to 72 hours from transmission of the bacteria, Salmonella. The symptoms hang in for 4 to 7 days. The good news is that most people recover without any treatment. The folks who end up in the hospital are primarily admitted due to severe and uncontrollable diarrhea.

It gets uglier! For those unfortunate souls, there is a risk that the Salmonellosis may spread from the intestines into the bloodstream or to other parts of the body, which can ultimately lead to death.

To avoid death, these high-risk patients are given antibiotics. (Thumbs up to scientists who brought us antibiotics!)

Something Good about Salmonella
Salmonella bacteria can go where no chemotherapy has gone before. It travels deep into cancerous tumors where conventional chemotherapy can't reach.

The National Institutes of Health recently awarded Neil Forbes of the University of Massachusetts Amherst a four-year grant of more than $1 million for the specific intent to research killing cancer tumors with Salmonella bacteria.

Forbes has programmed the Salmonella to release a drug that triggers a receptor in cancer cells to kill themselves. He calls it the "death receptor."

"When we get the Salmonella bacteria into the part of the tumor where we want them to be, we've programmed them to go ape," says Forbes. "We have the bacteria release a drug to trigger a receptor in cancer cells called the "death receptor," which induces cancer cells to kill themselves. We've already done this in the lab. We've done this successfully in cancerous mice, and it dramatically increases their survival rate.

"It sounds like science fiction, doesn't it?" Forbes continues "But Salmonella are little robots that can swim wherever they want. They have propellers in the form of flagella, they have sensors to tell them where they are going and they are also little chemical factories. What we do as engineers is to control where they go, what chemical we want them to make, and when they make it."

Forbes' work may well change the chemotherapy landscape into one that is more specific, effective and easier on the patient!

Bottom Line: Let's keep Salmonella in the laboratory!

Spread the optimistic word, NOT the icing,
Janice

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