Parasitic helminths are ubiquitous in most host, including human, populations. Helminths often alter the likelihood of infection and disease progression of coinfecting microparasitic pathogens (viruses, bacteria, protozoa), and there is great interest in incorporating deworming into control programmes for many major diseases (e.g. HIV, tuberculosis, malaria). However, such calls are controversi...

Tuberculosis (TB) caused by the bacteriaMycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) remains a global cause of considerable morbidity and mortality [1]. One of the biggest current challenges of TB control is our incomplete understanding of what constitutes protective immunity in TBendemic areas of the world. Although close to 2,200 million people maintain the infection in a state of latency and act as a re...

Anti-helminth immunity involves CD4+ T cells, yet the precise effector mechanisms responsible for parasite killing or expulsion remain elusive. We now report an essential role for antibodies in mediating immunity against the enteric helminth Heligmosomoides polygyrus (Hp), a natural murine parasite that establishes chronic infection. Polyclonal IgG antibodies, present in naive mice and produced...

BACKGROUND The impact of intestinal helminth infection on the clinical presentation and immune response during active tuberculosis (TB) infection is not well characterized. Our aim was to investigate whether asymptomatic intestinal helminth infection alters the clinical signs and symptoms as well as the cell mediated immune responses in patients with active TB. METHODOLOGY Consecutive, newly ...

Allergic diseases are rare in areas with high helminth parasite exposure and common where helminth exposure is lacking or significantly reduced, such as urban areas of developing countries and industrialized nations. Studies suggest that helminths induce a systemic immuno-modulatory network, including regulatory T cells and anti-inflammatory IL-10, which might play a key role in the protection ...

BACKGROUND Although the role of immunoglobulin E (IgE) in immunity against helminth parasites is unclear, there is concern that therapeutic antibodies that neutralize IgE (anti-IgE) may be unsafe in subjects at risk of helminth infection. OBJECTIVE We conducted an exploratory study to investigate the safety of omalizumab (anti-IgE) in subjects with allergic asthma and/or perennial allergic rh...

Global climate change is predicted to alter the distribution and dynamics of soil-transmitted helminth infections, and yet host immunity can also influence the impact of warming on host-parasite interactions and mitigate the long-term effects. We used time-series data from two helminth species of a natural herbivore and investigated the contribution of climate change and immunity on the long-te...

SOME SIMILARITIES BETWEEN IMMUNE RESPONSE DURING PREGNANCY AND CHRONIC HELMINTH INFECTIONS EXIST Pregnancy is a unique immunological status with different hormonal and immunological alterations. Pregnancy hormones (including progesterone, glucocorticoids, estradiol, and estriol) increase over the course of pregnancy and significantly modulate the immunological shift that occurs over the three t...

1.1 Parasitism Parasitism is an antagonistic relationship between organisms of different species where the parasite benefits at the expense of the host. Helminths are long-living, multicellular parasites. There are two major phylla of helminths; Nematodes and Platyhelminthes. The nematodes contain the intestinal worms known as soil-transmitted helminths including hookworms, whipworms and the fi...