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The thought of a parasitic worm is enough to make anybody’s skin crawl, and rightfully so! But researchers are now saying that they make be just what it takes to treat some of our most uncomfortable bowel illnesses.
NYU Langone Medical Center scientists believe certain types of parasites may be able to treat the debilitating effects of Crohn’s disease.
As CBS News reports, Crohn’s causes painful inflammation of the lining of the digestive tract, resulting in severe abdominal pain, diarrhea, fatigue, weight loss, and overall malnutrition.
Study co-author Ken Cadwell, assistant professor of microbiology at New York University School of Medicine, explained that scientists decided to look into parasites as a Crohn’s treatment after realizing that the disease had started becoming more prevalent in the developed world than in regions where specific types of parasites are relatively common.
"There is this dichotomy in places like the U.S. and Western Europe where there are higher incidences of IBD compared to places like India and Southeast Asia," Cadwell told CBS News.
That’s why Cadwell and his colleagues decided to uses animal models to see if intestinal worms might restore a more balanced array of microbes in the gut.
According to their findings, which have since been published in Science, the mice infected with the intestinal worms had a decrease in certain bacteria, called Bacteroides, which have been linked to Crohn’s disease.
"When we infected the mice with the worms, sure enough it reversed the disease. When we tried to see how that was happening, we saw differences in microbiota," said Cadwell.
While the idea of actually using parasites to treat Crohn’s is still pretty far off, this study has prompted scientists to try figuring out exactly why an intestinal worm can be beneficial for these inflammatory diseases.
"Ideally, we want to see if we can mimic the effect of the parasite," said Cadwell.
