Parasitic worms in a special way stimulate the immune system of mammals, which leads to a decrease in the intensity of inflammation and more efficient healing of damaged tissues
Parasitic worms can help cure lung ailments. Researchers from the Medical University of New Jersey (USA) came up with such an unusual idea in the pages of Nature Medicine. Of course, no one denies the harm caused by such worms to human health: hundreds of millions around the world suffer from various helminthiases, and often parasites are driven to the grave. But the same worms can be useful for the proper functioning of the immune system - for example, in the healing of damaged tissues and regulation of the inflammatory response.
William Gause and his colleagues studied the biology of the rodent parasitic worm Nippostrongylus brasiliensis. This worm is similar to one of the human hookworms, which, according to statistics, have more than 700 million people, mainly in developing countries. The life cycles of these parasites follow the same pattern. First, the larva enters the circulatory system, often through the skin of the legs, then enters the lungs. After that, the worm makes a passage from the trachea into the esophagus and ends up in the intestines, where it begins to multiply intensively. The greatest harm, according to scientists, worms cause during their stay in the lungs; mammals have developed special mechanisms to minimize this damage.
Researchers report a special immune protein (cytokine IL-17) whose function is to expel the parasite from the lungs and stimulate the healing process. By acting on various immune levers, this cytokine minimizes inflammation and helps clean up infectious debris left over from a harmful intruder. At the same time, it activates growth factors so that they quickly heal damaged tissues. In turn, this protein appears after the activation of a fraction of immune cells called type 2 T-helper cells. They are activated in response to different stimuli, but scientists were able to show that in the event of a reaction to worms, these cells trigger a specific healing and anti-inflammatory response.
According to the researchers, parasitic worms may be more effective than many conventional drugs because they activate the body's own immune resources. They also trigger a complex response that helps you resolve problems faster. Evolution has forced mammals to develop a specific response against parasites, but it can be applied with equal success, for example, against pneumonia, when damage to the walls of the trachea and bronchi also occurs.
In fact, using helminths to activate immunity is nothing new. They have already tried to use parasitic worms to treat some immune disorders (although in such works they took not human, but animal helminths). According to scientists, in the future it is not at all necessary to launch parasitic worms for a patient with pneumonia. The researchers plan to find out how the worm “irritates” the immune system so effectively in order to further work with this particular substance.
Based on materials from LiveScience.
