Worms and the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease: are molecules the answer?

The lack of exposure to helminth infections, as a result of improved living standards and medical conditions, may have contributed to the increased incidence of IBD in the developed world. Epidemiological, experimental, and clinical data sustain the idea that helminths could provide protection against IBD. Studies investigating the underlying mechanisms by which helminths might induce such protection have revealed the importance of regulatory pathways, for example, regulatory T-cells. Further investigation on how helminths influence both innate and adaptive immune reactions will shed more light on the complex pathways used by helminths to regulate the hosts immune system. Although therapy with living helminths appears to be effective in several immunological diseases, the disadvantages of a treatment based on living parasites are explicit. Therefore, the identification and characterization of helminth-derived immunomodulatory molecules that contribute to the protective effect could lead to new therapeutic approaches in IBD and other immune diseases

Bibliotheca antigua de los escritores aragoneses que florecieron desde la venida de Christo hasta el año 1500

Sign.: [ ]4, [asterisco]-2[asterisco]4, 3[asterisco]2, Aa-Zz4AntepLas h. de grab. calc., la primera es retrato de D. Felix de Latassa, entre port. y anteport. ; la segunda es escudo heráldico de D. Juan Martin de Goycoechea y Ciordia, a quien se dedica la obr

Schistosoma mansoni proteins attenuate gastrointestinal motility disturbances during experimental colitis in mice

AIM: To investigate the therapeutic effect of Schistosoma mansoni (S. mansoni) soluble worm proteins on gastrointestinal motility disturbances during experimental colitis in mice

Worm proteins of Schistosoma mansoni reduce the severity of experimental chronic colitis in mice by suppressing colonic proinflammatory immune responses.

Although helminthic therapy as a possible new option to treat inflammatory bowel disease is a well-established concept by now, the search for immunomodulatory helminth-derived compounds and their mechanisms of action is still ongoing. We investigated the therapeutic potential and the underlying immunological mechanisms of Schistosoma mansoni soluble worm proteins (SmSWP) in an adoptive T cell transfer mouse model of chronic colitis. Both a curative and a preventive treatment protocol were included in this study. The curative administration of SmSWP (started when colitis was established), resulted in a significant improvement of the clinical disease score, colonoscopy, macroscopic and microscopic inflammation score, colon length and myeloperoxidase activity. The therapeutic potential of the preventive SmSWP treatment (started before colitis was established), was less pronounced compared with the curative SmSWP treatment but still resulted in an improved clinical disease score, body weight loss, colon length and microscopic inflammation score. Both the curative and preventive SmSWP treatment downregulated the mRNA expression of the proinflammatory cytokines IFN-γ and IL-17A and upregulated the mRNA expression of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-4 in the colon at the end of the experiment. This colonic immunomodulatory effect of SmSWP could not be confirmed at the protein level. Moreover, the effect of SmSWP appeared to be a local colonic phenomenon, since the flow cytometric T cell characterization of the mesenteric lymph nodes and the cytokine measurements in the serum did not reveal any effect of SmSWP treatment. In conclusion, SmSWP treatment reduced the severity of colitis in the adoptive transfer mouse model via the suppression of proinflammatory cytokines and the induction of an anti-inflammatory response in the colon