Genetic study reveals secrets of parasitic worms and their possible treatments

The largest study to date on the genetic composition of helminths has shown hundreds of new evidence on how to invade the human body, avoid its immune system and cause disease.

The results suggest potential treatments to get rid of these worms to combat some of the most neglected tropical diseases, including river blindness, schistosomiasis and ancelostomes, which affect about one billion people worldwide.

"Parasitic worms are some of our oldest enemies and have evolved over millions of years to gain considerable experience in manipulating the immune system," said Mikdunka Mitreva of the McDonnell Institute of Genome. University of Washington.

The results of this study will shed light on parasite life and better understand how the human immune system is used and controlled.

Parasitic infections can persist for many years, causing severe pain, physical disability, retarded growth of children, and social stigma associated with a malformation.

Current medications, including drugs developed by Sanofi and Johnson & Johnson, can have a minor impact, often given by pharmaceutical companies or sold at a low price to those who need it. But the range of drugs that treat worms is still limited.

To try to improve drug development and understand how worms attack the human and animal body and animals, the research team compared the genetic map of 81 types of roundworms and flatworms , 45 of which were not genetically modified before. The analysis revealed the presence of nearly a million new genes belonging to thousands of new genetic families of potential drugs.