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Is there a role for helminths in the therapy of inflammatory bowel disease?

Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology & Hepatology volume 2, pages 62–63 (2005)Cite this article

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is thought to result from a hyper-responsive and misdirected immune response to intestinal microbes. Therapy is based on empirical use of local anti-inflammatory agents, corticosteroids and broad-spectrum immunosuppressive agents that have a limited efficacy and the potential for serious side effects. It was hoped that the development of antibodies targeted against proinflammatory cytokines or other biological immunomodulators would yield a safer and more effective therapy. Although antibodies to tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) are an important new therapeutic approach, they can increase the risk of serious opportunistic infections. Immunoglobulins or fusion proteins can also be rejected by the recipient leading to loss of efficacy or adverse allergic reactions. Thus, safer and more effective therapies are still needed.

No therapies have emerged from our incomplete understanding of the genetic basis of IBD, and genetic factors are unlikely to explain the increasing incidence of IBD worldwide. Environmental factors probably account for this increased incidence because children born and raised in countries with high rates of IBD, whose parents emigrated from regions with a low IBD incidence, have a much higher risk of IBD than their peers raised in the country of their parents' origin.1 IBD is common in highly sanitized, industrialized areas of the world, but uncommon in rural areas where living quarters are crowded and unhygienic. These observations are well known, but unexplained.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Activities,

    Robert W Summers & David E Elliott

  2. James A Clifton Center for Digestive Disease, University of Iowa, IA, USA

    Robert W Summers & David E Elliott

  3. Professor and Director of the Division of Gastroenterology/Hepatology at the University of Iowa, IA, USA

    Joel V Weinstock

Authors
  1. Robert W Summers
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  2. David E Elliott
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  3. Joel V Weinstock
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robert W Summers.

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Competing interests

The University of Iowa holds a patent on the technologies reported on in this paper. David Elliot and Joel V Weinstock have a sharing agreement with the University regarding this patent as per University policy.

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Summers, R., Elliott, D. & Weinstock, J. Is there a role for helminths in the therapy of inflammatory bowel disease?. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 2, 62–63 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncpgasthep0087

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