Worms could offer allergy hope
Updated on 14 September 2007
Blood-sucking parasitic worms are being investigated as a potential treatment for asthma and other allergic diseases.
British researchers hope to find out whether hookworms can tackle the conditions through their impact on the immune system.
Worm treatments might not only work for allergies, but also more serious auto-immune disorders such as type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis (MS), they believe.
Evidence dating as far back as the 1970s suggests that people infected with the tropical hookworm do not suffer allergies.
Wherever hookworms are found, asthma appears to be absent. But asthma rates are soaring in the developed world, where worm infestations are far less common.
The same pattern seems to hold true for Crohn's disease, an auto-immune gut disorder. Africans seldom suffer from the disease, unlike people of African descent living in the West.
Studies in New Guinea, where hookworms are rife, have suggested that the worms protect themselves in the human body by dampening down the immune system. At the same time, they appear to prevent over-active immune responses linked to allergies and auto-immune diseases.
Dr David Pritchard, from the University of Nottingham, is now leading a team looking to see if the worms can be harnessed to combat these conditions.
Two small safety trials have already been completed and early preparations are under way for a study of asthma patients.
"The epidemiologists have been making the case for quite a while that parasites such as hookworms could be good for you if administered in a controlled way," said Dr Pritchard, speaking at the BA (British Association) Festival of Science at York University.
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