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Researchers receive grant to study hookworm treatment for celiac disease
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Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council has awarded a grant in excess of $860,000 to John Croese, MD, an adjunct professor at James Cook University and a gastroenterologist at The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, and Paul Giacomin, PhD, a scientist at James Cook University’s Cairns Campus, to study an experimental treatment for celiac disease involving hookworms, according to a press release.
In a previous pilot study, patients with celiac disease were infected with 20 Necator americanus (hookworm) larvae and then received gradual increases in gluten intake. At the end of the study period, patients were able to eat gluten in amounts “equivalent [to] a medium-sized bowl of spaghetti,” suggesting this may be an effective treatment for celiac disease.
“The gut becomes more accepting of different foods,” Croese said in the press release. “It’s the most exciting development I am aware of in the treatment of celiac disease.”
The grant will fund a follow-up study in which 40 patients will be injected with hookworm larvae and receive much higher levels of gluten as the prior study cohort while they move toward eating a normal diet.
“Scientists believe the key to the hookworms’ anti-inflammatory prowess lies within the proteins that the worms secrete,” according to the press release. “Work will continue on isolating the protein, but in the interim it is thought a treatment for celiacs will involve infecting sufferers with the whole hookworm,” which cannot multiply to dangerous numbers as they do not breed within the human body.