Could You Fight Off Worms? Depends On Your Gut Microbes

Our tummies are teeming with trillions of bacteria — tiny microbes that help with little things, like digesting food, and big things, like warding off disease.

Those same microbes may have another purpose: waging war against worms.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis made the discovery after studying the microbiomes of individuals from Liberia and Indonesia. They found that the guts of individuals infected with parasites share common microbes — even if they live in completely different geographic locations. Similarly, healthy individuals whose bodies can clear out parasites without treatment seem to share a common gut bacteria.

This suggests the gut microbiome can be altered to protect people from becoming infected with parasitic worms, says Makedonka Mitreva, the lead researcher on the study and a specialist in infectious diseases and the microbiome.

"It may be wishful thinking, but maybe we could implement a control strategy after deworming where we strengthen or alter the microbiomes of individuals who are prone to infection," Mitreva says.

Nearly 25 percent of the world's population is currently infected with parasitic worms like hookworm, whipworm or roundworm, according to the World Health Organization. The worms are a disease of the developing world, for the most part. They spread when an infected individual defecates outside, leaving behind stool that's contaminated with eggs. When the eggs hatch, wriggling microscopic worms can latch on to the ankles or bare feet of individuals who walk by.

Once on board, the worms burrow into skin and travel to the gut to feed on blood or other tissues. Symptoms can vary, depending on the number of worms inside a person. In cases of severe infection, people can experience anemia, nutritional deficiencies and impaired growth.

Despite decades of deworming efforts to rid the world of worms, people in developing countries get reinfected often, according to Mitreva.

"Even if the [drug] therapy works and the infection is cleared, the exposure to contaminated soil is so pervasive that new infections are extremely common," she says.

Mitreva and her team recently analyzed hundreds of fecal samples from infected and uninfected people in Indonesia and Liberia. Samples were obtained once from some individuals, but other participants were followed long-term to see how their microbiome changed over time with or without drug treatment. - Read More

Could You Fight Off Worms? Depends On Your Gut Microbes