Bloodsucking tropical worm could help fight allergies. Dr Chris Steele investigates.

The Worm that Fights Allergies

Although this sounds like something from a Middle Ages history lesson, it is a genuine medical prospect.

A bloodsucking tropical worm could hold the key to combating allergies. Hook worms are thought to produce a substance that calms the overactive immune response behind our allergies.

They are already being tested on asthma patients, it is still in the trial stage.

The worm is in fact a hookworm, and it is applied to the skin where it then burrows through the skin into the bloodstream, to then settle in the gut.

Once there they latch on to the gut wall, and produce a substance that is thought to calm the immune response. Presumably this is to protect the worm from the body's defences. However it is possible that this substance can also help alleviate the symptoms of allergic reactions, which are in effect over reactions by the immune system.

It seems plausible if rather gruesome.

The research is being carried out at the University of Nottingham. You can read more details (if you dare!) here : The worm that turned


This content was created on Wed 26 September 2007

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