Turning to parasites as potential disease fighters

(Medical Xpress)—There is a new weapon in the fight against autoimmune diseases such as Type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease and lupus, the common trait of which is an immune system that attacks its own organs and tissues.William Gause, an immunologist at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, is among those leading the charge against these diseases by studying how the human body reacts to worms. The worms Gause studies, or helminths , are small parasites that live in human intestines, especially in the developing world.

Can Worms Alleviate Autism? | The Scientist Magazine®

A growing body of evidence suggests that in some patients, increased inflammation contributes to autistic behaviors. Now, a Phase I clinical trial is under way to measure the effects of infecting autistic patients with a non-pathogenic parasitic worm. Scientists at Montefiore Medical Center at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and biotech company Coronado Bioscienceswill test the hypothesis that treating these patients with Trichuris suis, a non-pathogenic parasitic pig whipworm, will dampen their immune responses and ameliorate repetitive and irritable behaviors.

Helminthic therapy - Wikipedia

The microbiome can have deleterious or beneficial effects on human health . Helminthic therapy is being assessed in a number of disorders as reviewed in this article. See also Pubmed articles and ClinicalTrials.gov

See also  viruses, bacteria. other pathogens and probiotics in various human diseases