More and more research shows that parasites may have a positive impact on our immune system. A new study supports this hypothesis and points out that in animal experiments, certain types of helminth infections can help reduce obesity rates.
Although we don't know enough about many areas, the gut bacterial population has a very important impact on our overall health, including affecting our immune function and mental health. But what kind of symbiotic relationship do we have with large parasites?
In recent years, some scientists have come up with an interesting hypothesis that there is a correlation between an increase in the incidence of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases in Western countries and a reduction in parasitic helminths or helminth infections.
For thousands of years, worms have evolved to survive in the human body; we are now studying how they can escape the attack of the human immune system. Studies have found that these worms have the ability to regulate the immune system of a human host by secreting certain molecules with an anti-inflammatory function.
Several striking studies over the past decade have shown that human intentional helminth infections can reduce intestinal inflammation and control allergic diseases, including asthma. A new study at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University focused on whether helminth infection has anything to do with obesity, as obesity is now known to be associated with chronic low-grade inflammation in adipose tissue.
The study used a specific type of intestinal mites that naturally exist in rodents, called intestinal parasitic nematodes. In the two-month experiment, one group of mice was fed a high-fat diet before the mice were infected with parasitic worms, and the other group was diet-controlled. The results are beyond imagination. After infection with the parasite, mice fed a high-fat diet began to gain weight almost immediately compared to uninfected mice fed the same diet. Even more interesting is the fact that mice fed a high-fat diet were infected with parasites, and the trend of weight gain was similar to that after diet-controlled mice.
The researchers then unveiled the mechanisms behind these results and found that parasites can positively alter the genetic profile of infected mice. Infected mice showed several key metabolic alterations compared to uninfected mice, as well as a greater number of anti-inflammatory immune cell trends.
The final phase of the study showed that this anti-inflammatory effect can be transplanted from one mouse to another. The researchers transplanted immune cells from mice infected with parasites into mice that were not infected but still fed a high-fat diet. Mice transplanted with immune cells subsequently showed a marked decrease in obesity caused by a high-fat diet, indicating that the immunomodulatory effects of the parasite are transferable.
It is unclear whether this study can be translated into clinical treatment because parasitic tests of other human diseases can only be successful occasionally. Scientist Helena Helmby pointed out in a review of human helminth treatment in 2015 that although these parasitic infections can dramatically alter the immune response, there are still many questions to answer, such as “property of the species, number of worms used, infections, It should be systemic or local, whether the dose should be small or heavy, and the role of the host hereditary."
Perhaps the most likely outcome of this research is new insights into new anti-inflammatory compounds that can lead researchers to develop new drugs to help regulate a variety of autoimmune diseases. These extraordinary organisms have taken thousands of years to form a unique way to suppress the body's immune system, and we can learn a lot.
The new study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.
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