Health

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-helminthology/article/practices-and-outcomes-of-selftreatment-with-helminths-based-on-physicians-observations/4B7A97234FCC40EDC958090C80A3AAEB
Cited by 7

Volume 91, Issue 3 May 2017 , pp. 267-277
Practices and outcomes of self-treatment with helminths based on physicians' observations
J. Liu (a1), R.A. Morey (a2), J.K. Wilson (a3) and W. Parker (a1)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022149X16000316
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 May 2016
Abstract

The successful use of helminths as therapeutic agents to resolve inflammatory disease was first recorded 40 years ago. Subsequent work in animal models and in humans has demonstrated that the organisms might effectively treat a wide range of inflammatory diseases, including allergies, autoimmune disorders and inflammation-associated neuropsychiatric disorders. However, available information regarding the therapeutic uses and effects of helminths in humans is limited. This study probes the practices and experiences of individuals ‘self-treating’ with helminths through the eyes of their physicians. Five physicians monitoring more than 700 self-treating patients were interviewed. The results strongly support previous indications that helminth therapy can effectively treat a wide range of allergies, autoimmune conditions and neuropsychiatric disorders, such as major depression and anxiety disorders. Approximately 57% of the self-treating patients observed by physicians in the study had autism. Physicians reported that the majority of patients with autism and inflammation-associated co-morbidities responded favourably to therapy with either of the two most popular organisms currently used by self-treaters, Hymenolepis diminuta and Trichuris suis. However, approximately 1% of paediatric patients experienced severe gastrointestinal pains with the use of H. diminuta, although the symptoms were resolved with an anti-helminthic drug. Further, exposure to helminths apparently did not affect the impaired comprehension of social situations that is the hallmark of autism. These observations point toward potential starting points for clinical trials, and provide further support for the importance of such trials and for concerted efforts aimed at probing the potential of helminths, and perhaps other biologicals, for therapeutic use.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/29402395/

Intestinal worms eating neuropsychiatric disorders? Apparently so.
Review article
Kou HH, et al. Brain Res. 2018.
Show full citation
Abstract
A number of factors in Western society, including inflammatory diets, sedentary lifestyles, vitamin D deficiency and chronic psychological stress, are known to induce inflammation and to be associated with neuropsychiatric disorders. One factor that is emerging as a potential inflammation inducing factor is biota depletion, or loss of biodiversity from the ecosystem of the human body as a result of industrialization. Originally known as the "hygiene hypothesis", biota alteration theory describes the effects of biota alteration on the human immune system. Work on this topic has pinpointed depletion of helminths as a key loss to the body's ecosystem in Western society, and suggests that some exposure to helminths, ubiquitous prior to the modern era, may be necessary for normal immune system development. Socio-medical studies of humans "self-treating" with helminths as well as limited studies in animal models strongly suggest that helminth therapy may be a productive approach toward treating a range of neuropsychiatric disorders, including chronic fatigue, migraine headaches, depression and anxiety disorders. However, helminth therapy faces some daunting hurdles, including the lack of a financial incentive for development, despite a tremendous potential market for the organisms. It is argued that benevolent donation for early trials as well as changes in regulatory policy to accommodate helminth therapy may be important for the field to develop. It is hoped that future success with some high-profile trials can propel the field, now dominated more by self-treatment than by clinical trials, forward into the main stream of medicine.

Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
PMID 29402395 [Indexed for MEDLINE]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/28720335/

Not infection with parasitic worms, but rather colonization with therapeutic helminths.
Parker W. Immunol Lett. 2017.
Show full citation
Abstract
No abstract available

PMID 28720335 [Indexed for MEDLINE]
Full text
Full text at journal site
Comment on
Immunol Lett. 2017 Aug;188:32-37.
Similar articles

Getting the most out of parasitic helminth transcriptomes using HelmDB: implications for biology and biotechnology.
Review article
Mangiola S, et al. Biotechnol Adv. 2013.
Toward next-generation sequencing of mitochondrial genomes--focus on parasitic worms of animals and biotechnological implications.
Review article
Jex AR, et al. Biotechnol Adv. 2010.
Helminths and mucosal immune modulation.
Review article
Weinstock JV, et al. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2006.
Got worms? Perinatal exposure to helminths prevents persistent immune sensitization and cognitive dysfunction induced by early-life infection.
Williamson LL, et al. Brain Behav Immun. 2016.
Functional genomics approaches in parasitic helminths.
Review article
Hagen J, et al. Parasite Immunol. 2012.