Hookworms treat coeliac symptoms

Hookworms may provide a key to treating coeliac disease, according to research presented at the AGW conference last week. The Australian study found that infection with a common species of hookworm (necator americanus, NA), was safely and successfully tolerated without any sustained ill effect by participants with histologically confirmed coeliac disease. Ten participants received infective NA larvae into their skin and 10 received placebo, after which they were given a gluten challenge. There was a significant deterioration in symptoms scores and overall well-being in the placebo group, and the Marsh scores deteriorated in 90% of the placebo group (p<0.05) but not in the NA group. The intraepithelial lymphocyte count increased in both groups, significantly so in the placebo group (p<0.05). Lead author Dr James Davison told the AGW conference that he believed the process of having the worms burrow through the skin began a complex immunomodulatory response. He added that none of the patients involved in the study seemed to mind being infected with hookworm. “When it came to the end of the trial and we gave them [drugs to kill the hookworm], they just didn’t want to take them,” he said....