First, I’ll give a brief overview of what inflammatory bowel
disease (IBD) actually is. Then I will
address this rather bizarre and yet fascinating research being done on
whipworms and their immunological benefits.
Essentially, IBD is an autoimmune disease, or more specifically, a type
II immunopathology. This occurs when antibodies
are directed against a specific target tissue or cell within the person’s own body. Sufferers of IBD have uncontrollable inflammation
within the intestinal tract, which leads to a multitude of “unpleasant”
problems. Although the actual cause of
IBD is still being worked out, the mechanism by which it happens is actually quite
simple. Basically, the individual’s own
body attacks various components within the digestive system, causing
inflammation and collateral damage.
Anyway, back to whipworms…
This article discusses the broader potential cures that
whipworms may have to offer. Aside from
Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, which are the major types of
inflammatory bowel disease, research is being done on how it can benefit those
with multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and even autism. The underlying theory behind this whole
whipworm fascination is that humans nowadays are too clean, which has resulted
in a lackluster immune system (how ironic).
Because we are not exposed to as many microorganisms as our predecessor
were, our immune system isn’t nearly as robust.
You can almost consider our ancestors to be “naturally” immunized. This is the basis for the whipworm
therapy. By introducing ourselves to a
safe microorganism, we can potentially “rebalance” our immune system. Whipworms from pigs were chosen because they
do not infect humans and cannot reproduce inside of humans, while still stimulating
an immunological response (which is good).
These worms will later die and either be absorbed or “pooped” out.
In addition to stimulating a desired immune response, I have
a question to stimulate some discussion.
Would you consider this form of therapy in the future if it proves to be
effective? Why or why not? I wonder how it would taste…
The idea of eating whip worm eggs from pigs kind of grosses me out and then the thought of worms just latching on to my intestine is kind of scary. But if I were suffering from one of those diseases and the worms actually do help out, than I would probably consider trying it. Maybe once more research is done on it people might consider it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read this article, I definitely had mixed feelings about it. I think that it’s great that these pig whipworms are able to diminish the symptoms of diseases like Crohn’s disease without causing any significant harm to the person’s body. I think my main concern besides the fact of swallowing actual pig whipworm is that since it is not commonly used as treatment right now in the U.S., people are able to obtain a three-month supply of pig whipworm eggs from Europe for 3,500 euros. This comes out to about $4,548.25. Not only is this quite expensive for the average American, but I almost feel like it is encouraging patients to self-medicate. Patients might be so desperate to relieve the painful symptoms of IBD that they don’t run their idea of consuming pig whipworm with their healthcare provider. Normally, patients wouldn’t go against medical advisement and take whatever dosage of medication they feel is appropriate for the particular condition they have. They follow the instructions their healthcare provider gives them. With the Internet, patients feel that they can acquire all the medical knowledge they need about this, but in actuality, this could be dangerous. At the end of the day, they are putting a foreign “bug” in their body without really knowing the effects. I understand that the desire to relieve the painful symptoms of IBD must be motivating patients to take their health into their own hands, but I really feel until more clinical studies are done and patients have received the “okay” from clinicians, they should abstain from consuming this “friendly bug” on their own.
ReplyDeleteSource:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/drinking-pig-worms-fight-crohns-disease/story?id=17148676
Nice post, Richard. Albeit gross sounding I totally think this is a promising future treatment. The idea of giving us these what we usually think of as harmful nasties as a treatment for IBD kind of reminds me of like an inverse look at antibiotics. We think of these as the perfect fixer but if they're not used properly they can actually create resistant super infections in us. It seems like these worm microorganisms could be a great helper in boosting our immune system but if we use them improperly could they actually possibly be detrimental to our health? I'd definitely want that cleared up before I took the treatment but if they prove it'll help me and won't be harmful I'm down. Probably wouldn't be as bad as all the laxatives people have to take when going in for a colonoscopy which many people suffering from IBDs (Crohn's for sure) have to deal with on sometimes a monthly basis.
ReplyDeleteI think that this idea of utilizing whipworms as an essential vector to promote T-regulatory cells is innovative, but comes with some fairly complex complications. Evidently with any sort of alleviation to inflammatory/immunological diseases poses problems in regulation of cytokine levels, but I do agree this is a more socially presentable option to treating IBD.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that you mentioned IBD as an autoimmune diesease, and I came across an article that suggested that Crohn's disease (1 of the 2 forms of IBD) is actually NOT an autoimmune disease but rather an innate immunodeficiency "state". Do you think that there's any potential fault in labeling Crohn's disease as an autoimmune disease?
The first paper is the one that caught my attention with the claim and the second one does a better job in explaining the pathophysiology behind it:
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2810%2960282-6/fulltext
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12016-009-8133-2
The paper was able to elaborate the effectiveness of the whipworms therapy. If people are suffering from IBD, I would highly suggest this kind of therapy since it has no known negative effects on humans (so far). However, after learning facts about IBD, I don't think that I will do the whipworm therapy to boost up my immune system. Most of the people at risk were Caucasian descent and/or Ashkenazi Jewish, and genetics plays a big role too.
ReplyDeleteI don't fall on any of those categories, so I don't think the chances of me developing IBD is low. If it does happen, I will be willing to do it, but as for a therapy that will just boost up my immune system, I don't think that it is something that I will do. It's like vaccinations. If you try to go to Africa, they will give you a lot of vaccinations that is not normally given in the USA because the diseases present in Africa is not prevalent in the USA, so there is no point of vaccinating every child for a disease that is not even present in the country.
As Colin said, the idea of introducing whipworms to promote T-regulatory cells and ultimately switch to a Th2 response is genius. Nevertheless, I think all of us would have some constraint against ingesting some sort of living whipworm to sooth our symptoms. I agreed with Christian in thinking that such intervention would have no side effects, but I wasn't completely sure. So, I looked into whether prior research has addressed the symptoms associated with such treatments. I found a reliable article (found at: http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0022346) which analyzed the direct symptoms of ingesting the helminth Trichuris suis. In short, the study deemed the intervention safe stating that, "The response reflects the initial exposure to the parasite and the associated immune response". Again, even though the general consensus is that ingesting whipworms etc for therapeutic benefits is safe, I would still be reluctant to do so until more research is conducted.
ReplyDeleteI found this article very interesting, particularly the story about Stewart Johnson and his autistic son. I was skeptical at first, because I hadn't heard of autism being an inflammatory or autoimmune disease before and definitely didn't think of whip worms as a treatment. I wanted to look further into this story to see how the son is doing today, or if he was able to provide any input in his dad's decision to treat him with helminths. I only found Stewart Johnson's blog which documents his story and says that his son, now 20 something, continues whip worm therapy as his father deems necessary. (blog found here: http://autismtso.com/about/the_clues/)
ReplyDeleteAlthough I would probably try helminthic therapy like this to treat IBD and other ailments, I came across another blog that relates to what Zinnia was saying. In this blog (http://scientopia.org/blogs/whitecoatunderground/2011/02/10/a-good-idea-gone-horribly-awry/), a doctor accuses Stewart Johnson of being unethical in his "self-diagnosis" that the chigger bites were improving his son's behavior and that giving his son whip worms using an uncontrolled experiment was wrong. He states, "we treat lab rats better than that." I didn't particularly like this guy's blog entry, but it did make me think of ethical implications I had not thought of before.