Sick, old fast? eLife: This could be worms "making bad"

More and more research shows that aging-related inflammation is closely related to the absence of "old friend" worms, before the development of modern medicine, we and parasites have coexisted for thousands of years, after a long period of friction between the two sides, the immune system has turned a blind eye to this "old friend", but this long-term game formed a dynamic balance once broken, age-related heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and other diseases follow.
, eLife magazine published an article entitled "Gross ways to live long: Parasitic worms as an anti-inflammaging therapy?" The review explains that parasites may be the key to human longevity and escape from chronic diseases.
aging-related inflammation can lead to a range of diseases, and numerous studies have found that inflammation is the cause of major diseases such as heart disease, dementia, cancer, chronic obstructive pneumonia, osteoporosis, and eye disease in later life.
not only that, inflammation has multiple effects even on older patients with COVID-19, and effective treatment of older patients with COVID-19 may require comprehensive anti-inflammatory and antiviral treatment options.
a recent article in Science suggested the relationship between inflammation and SARS-CoV-2.
study suggests that the build-up of senescing cells in the respiratory tract of elderly patients may be involved in the initiation of inflammatory cascading reactions, thereby inhibiting T-cell responses to virally infected cells.
and inflammation induces the expression of NKR ligations in lung cells, making them susceptible to killing by immersion T cells expressing NKR.
findings are important for older patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 pathogens, and may inhibit inflammatory aging as a new strategy to improve immune response in older adults.
in human evolution, worms have become the main manipulators of the human immune system, able to cleverly evade the host's attack.
large number of studies have shown that the decrease in worm infections is associated with an increase in the incidence of autoimmune inflammatory diseases.
this has led to speculation: Will reducing worm infections promote inflammation? Can low-dose disease-free worms be taken to relieve aging-related diseases? The study found that worm therapy is expected to be used as a treatment for inflammatory diseases such as allergies and autoimmune inflammation, such as asthma, allergic eczema, enteritis, multiple sclerosis (MS), rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 diabetes.
there are obvious safety risks associated with treating related diseases with live worms, so one strategy is to address these concerns by controlling dosages or using worms from different hosts.
such as Trichuris suis, a pig whipworm that cannot reproduce in the human body; another strategy is to use worm-derived proteins to achieve the same therapeutic effect.
researchers speculate that since worm therapy is now expected to be used as a treatment for allergic and autoimmune inflammatory diseases, can it also prevent inflammation? Can worms be retained in the intestines to help slow aging? In March 2020, the idea that worm therapy could prevent inflammation was first validated and published in PLOS.
ES-62 is a 62 kDa glycoprotein found in the secretion of silky worm parasite A. Viteae, and researchers found that weekly ES-62 in the C57BL/6J mouse model of a high-calorie diet improved late-stage health, and an immuno-metabolic response analysis found that "ES-62" improved levels of inflammatory factors associated with aging.
suggests that parasitic worm infections can extend life expectancy and slow aging, but it is doubtful that ES-62 can extend the lifespan of male mice, but not female mice.
The study of parasitic therapy is mainly confined to animal models, but there are also examples of anti-inflammatory properties of worms, such as in the eastern Indian region of lymphatic rheumatoid disease, no human circulating silkworm antigens with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) tested positive, and the proportion of people without RA disease who tested positive for human circulating silkworm antigens is higher, but this is speculation and needs further validation. The value of
worms is not limited to that, and the researchers found that worms can suppress inflammation in the lungs and lower levels of the inflammatory cytokine IL-33, promote age-related macular degeneration, and may also have a protective effect on Parkinson's disease and depression, but the associated costs of this benefit may be immune function abnormalities.
there is no doubt that improving hygiene and eliminating worm parasites have incalculable benefits for humans.
but the price associated with this benefit is inflammatory abnormalities.
has been found that restorative worm therapy is not only effective in fighting allergic and autoimmune inflammatory diseases to some extent, but also in treating age-related inflammation later in life.
the last century, people have successfully eliminated the harm of parasitic infections, in the future, further exploration of the potential benefits of parasites to mankind will be the general trend.
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