To avoid being eliminated from our bodies, parasitic worms will suppress our immune systems. A number of them can infect our intestines. In fact, parasitic worms have been infecting our intestines for a long, long time.
For example, 80 to 90 percent of children from developing countries are infected with parasite worms. What is interesting is that it has also been shown that people from developing countries rarely get ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease. A large number of people in industrialized nations, on the other hand, have ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, but it is rare for them to have intestinal parasite infections.
Knowing these facts lead a group of scientists at the University of Iowa in the United States to try to see if intestinal parasitic worms could alleviate the symptoms of patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.
People with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease have similar problems. Basically, their intestines are inflamed as a result of their immune systems' response to some as-yet-to-be-determined cause. Both diseases affect the patients in similar ways. They have abdominal pain, bleeding, and diarrhea. They usually start manifesting symptoms in their late teens or early 20's, and they usually have symptoms for the rest of their lives.
Dr. Joel Weinstock, a professor at the University of Iowa and the project director, and his colleagues initially infected mice with a certain intestinal parasitic worm. This study revealed that mice infected with the parasite were less likely to develop intestinal disease.
They then decided to test this treatment in humans. Six human volunteers with either Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis were given the intestinal parasite. The patients were given a drink that contained microscopic worm eggs. Each egg was smaller than a grain of sand. The parasites came out of the eggs in the intestines, and the immature parasites then attached themselves to the intestine wall. This particular parasitic worm is only about 1/16 of an inch long.
The exciting news of this study was that the symptoms of all six subjects improved, and five of the six went into remission (remission = a period of time in which the patient has no symptoms of their disease). These results even surprised the scientists. Dr. Weinstock said, "We didn't expect to see a clinical response on the first try with one dose."
The results from this study have encouraged the researchers to continue the work. They plan on conducting a double-blind study in an attempt to prove their theory. If this proves to be an effective treatment, researchers may be able to discover how the parasites suppress the immune system. They could then develop new drugs that would lessen the severity or, in some cases, prevent symptoms from recurring in patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.
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