Worm cure to combat asthama and allergy

Agreeing to be deliberately infected with parasitic worms in the name of science might seem a sacrifice too far. But British researchers are convinced that having the blood-sucking creatures wriggling inside you can combat asthma and other allergy conditions.
They hope to find out whether hookworms, which thankfully live in the tropics, can tackle the diseases through their impact on the immune system.
It’s also possible that worm treatments might work for more serious auto-immune disorders, such as type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis (MS).
Evidence dating as far back as the 1970s suggests that people infected with hookworms do not suffer allergies. The same applies to Crohn’s disease, an auto-immune gut disorder.
Studies in New Guinea, where hookworms are rife, have suggested that the worms protect themselves in the human body by dampening down certain parts of the immune system.
This appears to have the side-effect of preventing the over-active immune responses linked to allergies and auto-immune diseases.
Dr David Pritchard, from the University of Nottingham, who is leading the research, has already completed two small safety trials testing dosages and is now preparing for a clinical study of asthma patients.
"The epidemiologists have been making the case for quite a while that parasites such as hookworms could be good for you if administered in a controlled way," he said last week at the BA Festival of Science at York University.
The hookworm, which is about 1.5 centimetres long, produces larvae which penetrate the skin through the soles of the feet.
They enter the blood circulation, pass through the lungs and windpipe, and are swallowed.
Once in the gut the adult worms feed by sucking blood through the intestinal wall.
Eventually, their eggs are expelled in faeces.