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Current Trends of Helminth Therapy for Inflammatory Bowel Disease
  • Date2017-05-31 09:32
  • Update2017-05-31 09:32
  • DivisionDivision of Strategic Planning for Emerging Infectious Diseases
  • Tel043-719-7271


Current Trends of Helminth Therapy for Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Division of Malaria and Parasitic Diseases, Center for Immunology and Pathology, NIH, CDC
Lee Myoung-Ro, Ju Jung-Won, Lee Sang-Eun, Cheun Hyeng-Il, Jeong Young-Il, Cho Shin-Hyeong

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic relapsing inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. The disease is classified into Crohn’s Disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC). IBD has been a health-care problem that has rapidly escalated over the past 50 years mainly in Western countries. However, in recent years, the incidence rate has increased rapidly in Asian countries including Korea. The incidence of UC and CD was reported as 4.60 and 3.20 per 100,000 persons in Korea, respectively. Although there are several treatments including 5-aminosalicylates, corticostieroids for IBD, the therapeutic effect is low and there are side effects. Epidemiological, experimental and clinical data have shown that helminth parasites can be used as treatment for IBD. Helminth parasites have developed a variety of strategies to modulate the immune responses in order to avoid immune effector cells and molecules. It was shown that therapeutic infection with the pig whipworm Trichuris suis had greatly improved in patient responses for both CD and UC with essentially no adverse effects. Our results (not published) showed that Metagonimus miyata infection can ameliorate dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis in mouse model. The regulatory ability of helminth in host immune system has led to clinical effect using helminth therapy as a possible treatment for IBD. It is anticipated that the information on the status of the treatment development using parasites and the results of the research will contribute to the establishment of a utilization strategy for IBD treatment.
This public work may be used under the terms of the public interest source + commercial use prohibition + nonrepudiation conditions This public work may be used under the terms of the public interest source + commercial use prohibition + nonrepudiation conditions
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