Notes on helminthic therapy:
Companies, such as Danone (Paris, France) and Yakult (Tokyo, Japan), known for their probiotic milk drinks that are marketed to promote their beneficial bacterial content, have already expressed an interest. Incorporating the 'old friends' into food products could therefore become a new type of 'vaccine' against faulty immunity. “It's not that vaccines [against microorganisms] are doing any harm,” Rook said. “I think that we need new kinds of vaccines that are not targeting any specific infection, but are targeting immunoregulation.”
The disappearance of intestinal parasites from humans in developed countries may be responsible for the upsurge in many diseases including Celiac Disease, Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, asthma and hay fever. A parasite's survival relies on its ability to interfere with the host's immune response. The mechanisms employed to do this are similar to those required by a person to regulate against the so-called autoimmune disorders, diseases in which the system turns on itself. The investigators suspect that when parasites are excluded from the environment, some individuals become sufficiently self-reactive to develop an autoimmune disease. American researchers have successfully treated patients with Crohn's and ulcerative colitis using a pig whipworm (Trichuris suis). The investigators have undertaken a similar preliminary study using a human hookworm in Crohn's patients.
Companies, such as Danone (Paris, France) and Yakult (Tokyo, Japan), known for their probiotic milk drinks that are marketed to promote their beneficial bacterial content, have already expressed an interest. Incorporating the 'old friends' into food products could therefore become a new type of 'vaccine' against faulty immunity. “It's not that vaccines [against microorganisms] are doing any harm,” Rook said. “I think that we need new kinds of vaccines that are not targeting any specific infection, but are targeting immunoregulation.”
The disappearance of intestinal parasites from humans in developed countries may be responsible for the upsurge in many diseases including Celiac Disease, Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, asthma and hay fever. A parasite's survival relies on its ability to interfere with the host's immune response. The mechanisms employed to do this are similar to those required by a person to regulate against the so-called autoimmune disorders, diseases in which the system turns on itself. The investigators suspect that when parasites are excluded from the environment, some individuals become sufficiently self-reactive to develop an autoimmune disease. American researchers have successfully treated patients with Crohn's and ulcerative colitis using a pig whipworm (Trichuris suis). The investigators have undertaken a similar preliminary study using a human hookworm in Crohn's patients.
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