The word
"helminth" refers to a type of parasite that lives inside the body of another organism. These parasites can be harmful and cause diseases.
Full definition
We determined the location
of helminth eggs in entire stool samples from 222 individuals in Côte d'Ivoire.
Differential human gut microbiome assemblages during soil - transmitted
helminth infections in Indonesia and Liberia — Bruce A. Rosa, Microbiome
Soil -
Transmitted Helminths in Southwestern China: A Cross-Sectional Study of Links to Cognitive Ability, Nutrition, and School Performance among Children
Similar to the targets
in helminths, pyrvinium impairs glycolysis and mitochondrial respiration in cancer cells.
They are used as intermediate hosts for a slew of
helminth parasites, many of which do infect humans.
Parasitic helminths cause debilitating diseases that affect millions of people in primarily low - resource settings.
«In this case they had a very unique patient — one who was self - infecting
with helminths.»
To check whether
helminths cause the same effects in people, the scientists compared two populations in Malaysia: urbanites living in Kuala Lumpur, who harbor few intestinal parasites, and members of an indigenous group, the Orang Asli, who live in a rural area where the worms are rife.
According to the World Health Organization, about one quarter of the world's population — over 1.5 billion people — is infected with parasitic worms
called helminths.
The number of
helminth eggs was recorded for each species separately.
Has authored or co-authored more than 170 refereed original research articles and book chapters, and is currently co-authoring a book
on helminth parasite infections in dogs and cats.
CNS Diseases Caused
by Helminths and Arthropods; Diagnostic Procedures for the Private Practice Laboratory: Parasitology; Flies; Venomous Arthropods
Loke thinks that the human body may boost mucus production when it detects
helminths as a defense against the parasites; for a patient with ulcerative colitis, the extra mucus may also help calm an excessively aggressive immune system.
It's an atlas of the distribution and prevalence of
helminth diseases, including roundworm, hookworm and whipworm.
Infection with
intestinal helminths results in immunological changes that influence co-infections, and might influence fecundity by inducing immunological states affecting conception and pregnancy.
Parasites cause a lot and in the case of tapeworms and
other helminths, they can end up in your brain or spinal cord, cause cysts and inflamation.
After swallowing some of these, I was warned that I might experience a feeling of bliss called a «
helminth high» the day after.
«It will mean there's finally recognition from regulators that biome enrichment with
benign helminths is akin to simply taking another form of probiotic.»
Helminths harm health, but also interfere with nutrition and even academic advancement.
The team found that women infected with the most
common helminth, a type of hookworm, tended to have their first child later, and to have longer gaps between each child.
However, IBD is rare in parts of the world
where helminths are prevalent, and it is surging in more developed countries, where few people now carry the intestinal intruders.
Two recent clinical trials of
helminth treatment for Crohn's disease, in which participants drank a solution containing the worms» eggs, stopped early because the results were disappointing.
Blood profiling and genetic analysis further revealed that tissues in
which helminths thrived increased carbohydrate metabolism — a prerequisite for mucus production.
Clinical trials on helminthic therapy are particularly difficult to arrange
because helminths are live pathogens and have not been officially approved as therapeutic agents by any governmental agency, although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted pig whipworm (Trichuris suis) the status of Investigational New Drug.
The «old friends hypothesis» proposes that the human immune system can not learn to regulate itself without exposure to common pathogens
like helminths that have coevolved with people and that modern hygienic practices deprive people of this necessary exposure, possibly explaining the relatively higher and more recent prevalence of immune diseases in industrialized countries like the U.S. Loke plans to continue researching helminthic therapy in people and in monkeys.
Mounting Evidence In fact, in numerous animal studies,
helminth infestation has protected rodents against colitis, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, food allergies and type 1 diabetes.
Weinstock and his collaborators point to these trials as experimental evidence that fits a global pattern: immune disorders are much rarer in less developed countries where helminthic infestation is widespread than in industrialized countries where much smaller populations
host helminths.
Our studies might also have implications for diseases caused by other
pathogenic helminths,» said Stadecker, also a member of the also a member of the immunology program faculty at the Sackler School.
*
Chronic helminth infection perturbs the gut - brain axis, promotes neuropathology and alters behaviour — Paul R Giacomin — The Journal of Infectious Diseases
Salim N, Knopp S, Lweno O, Abdul U, Mohamed A, Schindler T, Rothen J, Masimba J, Kwaba D, Mohammed AS, Althaus F, Abdulla S, Tanner M, Daubenberger C, Genton B. Distribution and risk factors for Plasmodium and
helminth co-infections: a cross-sectional survey among children in Bagamoyo district, coastal region of Tanzania.
Matt leads a team that is undertaking major projects to sequence the genomes of parasites that are responsible for diseases prevalent throughout the developing world and poorer countries, including malaria and other neglected tropical diseases with a particular focus on
helminths such as Schistomosomes, tapeworms, roundworms, hookworms, threadworms and whipworms.
Intestinal epithelial tuft cells initiate type 2 mucosal
immunity helminth parasites.
Sydney Baker, MD: How Parasites Can Rebalance Your Immune System (yes, you read that correctly — his discussion on
helminth therapy or «little dudes» is fascinating!)
«A recent national survey of shelters revealed that almost 36 % of dogs nationwide and 52 % of dogs from southeastern states
harbored helminths capable of causing human disease.
Goldberg et al. (2000) reported an infection rate of 57 % (99 of 174 animals examined) in Channel Islands slender salamanders and recorded the
following helminths: Mesocestoides sp. (a cestode) and Batracholandros salamandrae and Oswaldocruzia pipiens (both nematodes).
I will be the first to admit that I new very little about worms (a.k.a.
parasitic helminths) and other parasites prior to doing research for this post, but the general idea I had in my head was that they were not welcome creatures and if you had them, then there was probably a hygiene issue that needed to be addressed.
Epidemiology of coinfection with soil
transmitted helminths and Plasmodium falciparum among school children in Bumula District in western Kenya.Parasit Vectors.
Parasitic worms
called helminths are very common, infecting 70 per cent of the population.
These include toxoplasmosis, leishmaniosis, and
helminth infections of canines or felines (e.g., echinococcosis, toxocarosis, ancylostomiosis and dirofilariosis).
Our findings have important implications for individual patient management and the design and implementation of epidemiological surveys and
helminth disease control programs.
«The researchers noticed a specific pattern of behavior, cycling between remission and active disease depending on when the patient infected himself
with helminths,» Weinstock adds.
We found that different species
of helminth are associated with contrasting effects on fecundity.
Helminths could suppress immune disorders by promoting healthy mucus production in the intestine
Chagas disease (caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi) and strongyloidiasis (caused by
the helminth S. stercoralis) are neglected tropical diseases that share a similar epidemiological burden and result in chronic infections with high morbidity and mortality.
Thus,
helminths may have important effects on human fertility that reflect physiological and immunological consequences of infection.
We investigated associations between intestinal
helminths and fertility in women, using 9 years of longitudinal data from 986 Bolivian forager - horticulturalists, experiencing natural fertility and 70 % helminth prevalence.
When they were quickly successful, she wondered if
her helminth infection may have had an effect.