Simran Maggo
Pharmacology
Student
To better understand the side-effects of cholesterol-reducing drugs, Pharmacology PhD student Simran Maggo is teaching guinea pigs to swim.
It makes perfect sense, he says. “There's evidence that statins, the drugs most commonly prescribed to prevent and treat high blood cholesterol, affect memory. But it's very difficult to measure how much of a problem this is, and know whether the amnesia some people experience is really a result of their medication, or whether something else is going on.”
And that's where the guinea pigs and a swimming pool come in. Simran's study involves two groups of guinea pigs, some receiving doses of statin, and others not. His specially-designed pool, “much like a spa”, comes complete with a platform guinea pigs can stand on, which is lowered from beneath them. Simran measures how long it takes guinea pigs to learn to swim, and how well they remember what they have learned from session to session.
Sure enough, “it does seem that the guinea pigs receiving statins are a bit slower”.
Given that statins are the second-most prescribed drug in New Zealand, understanding any unintended consequences is critically important. Alongside his study, Simran works for the New Zealand Pharma-covigilance Centre, responsible for monitoring adverse reactions people experience from their medications.
It's all part of understanding the mystery and alchemy of medicine. “It always amazed me that people could take a pill, and that medicine would know where in the body to go and what to do when it got there.”
And Simran reassures us that his guinea pigs are well cared for. “Yes, they can swim naturally – that's the first question the University's ethics committee asked me!”