Helminths and Intestinal Flora Team Up to Improve Gut Health

Paul Giacomin; Zainab Agha; Alex Loukas

doi:10.1016/j.pt.2016.05.006

Helminths and Intestinal Flora Team Up to Improve Gut Health

Trends Parasitol. 2016 Sep;32(9):664-666. doi: 10.1016/j.pt.2016.05.006. Epub 2016 May 24.

Authors

Paul Giacomin¹, Zainab Agha², Alex Loukas²

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Biodiscovery and Molecular Development of Therapeutics, Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD, Australia. Electronic address: paul.giacomin@jcu.edu.au.
² Centre for Biodiscovery and Molecular Development of Therapeutics, Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD, Australia.

PMID: 27234811
DOI: 10.1016/j.pt.2016.05.006

Abstract

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are associated with impaired intestinal barrier function, chronic inflammation, and microbial dysbiosis. In a recent publication in Science, Ramanan et al. used murine and human studies to demonstrate that infections with gastrointestinal helminths can protect against IBD by provoking immune responses that alter the balance of commensal and pathogenic bacteria in the intestine.

Keywords: helminth; hygiene hypothesis; inflammatory bowel disease.; microbiota.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Comment

MeSH terms

Animals
Gastrointestinal Microbiome / physiology*
Helminths / immunology
Humans
Inflammation / immunology
Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / immunology
Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / microbiology
Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / parasitology*
Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / prevention & control*
Intestines / microbiology*
Intestines / parasitology*
Mice