Infection With Ascaris Eggs Relieves Symptoms Of Ulcerative Colitis

Infection With Ascaris Eggs Relieves Symptoms Of Ulcerative Colitis.
The suit of a mortals who swallowed parasite eggs to treat his ulcerative colitis - and in truth got better - sheds light on how "worm therapy" might help heal the gut, a original study suggests. "Our findings in this case report suggest that infection with the eggs of the T trichiura roundworm can alleviate the symptoms of ulcerative colitis," said ruminate on leader P'ng Loke, an helper professor in the department of medical parasitology at NYU Langone Medical Center. A lenient parasite, Trichuris trichiura infects the large intestine.

The findings could also lead to inexperienced ways to treat the debilitating disease, a form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) currently treated with drugs that don't always opus and can cause serious side effects, said Loke. The investigate findings are published in the Dec 1, 2010 issue of Science Translational Medicine.

Loke and his duo followed a 35-year-old man with severe colitis who tried worm (or "helminthic") treatment to avoid surgical removal of his entire colon. He researched the therapy, flew to a medicate in Thailand who had agreed to give him the eggs, and swallowed 1500 of them.

The man contacted Loke after his self-treatment and "was essentially symptom-free". Intrigued, he and his colleagues solid to follow the man's condition.

The study analyzed slides and samples of the man's blood and colon fabric from 2003, before he swallowed the eggs, to 2009, a few years after ingestion. During this period, he was substantially symptom-free for almost three years. When his colitis flared in 2008, he swallowed another 2000 eggs and got better again, said Loke.

Tissue captivated during full colitis showed a large number of CD4+ T-cells, which are immune cells that produce the inflammatory protein interleukin-17, the group found. However, tissue taken after worm therapy, when his colitis was in remission, contained lots of T-cells that insist upon interleukin-22 (IL-22), a protein that promotes wound healing.