BACKGROUND AND AIMS The association between hygiene and prevalence of autoimmune disease has been attributed in part to enteric helminth infection. A pilot study of experimental infection with the hookworm Necator americanus was undertaken among a group of otherwise healthy people with celiac disease to test the potential of the helminth to suppress the immunopathology induced by gluten. METH...

Diagnostic tools appropriate for undertaking interventions to control helminth infections are key to their success. Many diagnostic tests for helminth infection have unsatisfactory performance characteristics and are not well suited for use in the parasite control programmes that are being increasingly implemented. Although the application of modern laboratory research techniques to improve dia...

There is an urgent need to develop better therapeutics for autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases, of which musculoskeletal disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis are particularly prevalent and debilitating. Helminth parasites are accomplished masters at modifying their hosts' immune activity, and so attention has focused on rodent-helminth model systems to uncover the workings of the mammali...

BACKGROUND Helminths affect the outcome of tuberculosis by shifting cell mediated immune response to humoral and by total suppression of the host immune system. On the reverse, Mycobacterium infection favors immune escape of helminths. Therefore assessing helminth co-infection rate and predisposing factors in tuberculosis patients is mandatory to set strategies for better case management. MET...

Variations in levels of parasitism among individuals in a population of hosts underpin the importance of parasites as an evolutionary or ecological force. Factors influencing parasite richness (number of parasite species) and load (abundance and biomass) at the individual host level ultimately form the basis of parasite infection patterns. In fish, diet range (number of prey taxa consumed) and ...

This review summarizes current knowledge of macrophages in helminth infections, with a focus not only on delineating the striking similarities in macrophage phenotype between diverse infections but also on highlighting the differences. Findings from many different labs illustrate that macrophages in helminth infection can act as anti-parasite effectors but can also act as powerful immune suppre...

Background The effect of helminth infections on allergic diseases is still inconclusive. Several studies show that Treg cell induced by parasites down regulate the host Th2-mediated allergic response. However, some studies highlight the importance of alternative activated macrophages (AAM) in the pathogenesis of allergic diseases. This phenotype is also implicated in helminth survival. Our aim ...

the incidence and hematological effects of helminth infection during pregnancy were investigated among pregnant women in isiala, mbano, southeast nigeria.totally 282 pregnant women were enlisted for the study between october 2011 and september 2012. stool samples were examined for intestinal helminths using formalin-ether sedimentation technique. hemoglobin (hb) and packed cell volume (pcv) lev...

BACKGROUND The convergent distribution of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and helminth infections has led to the suggestion that infection with helminths exacerbates the HIV epidemic in developing countries. In South Africa, it is estimated that 57% of the population lives in poverty and carries the highest burden of both HIV and helmith infections, however, the disease interactions are ...

SYNOPSIS. Some of the accumulated knowledge on the complex problems involved in the transmission of helminths of domestic animals in the USA is summarized. The lollowing conditions are usually necessary for the development outside the final hosts of infective stages of these helminths: moderate temperatures, adequate moisture, oxygen, and protection from freezing, desiccation and direct sunligh...