Helminthic therapy

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Helminthic therapy is currently considered the most promising alternative treatment of Crohn's disease and Ulcerative colitis.[1] During the therapy, patients are given ova of the porcine (pig) whipworm Trichuris suis, which they ingest for a period of time. The results are promising especially in the treatment of Crohn's disease, but there is also ongoing research on the possibility of treating other autoimmune diseases with helminthic therapy.

Inflammatory bowel diseases are common in Western industrialized countries, but rare in developing countries where people live in less sanitized environments. One possible suggested explanation for this is the lack of intestinal worms in developed countries which may cause human immunal system to over-react causing inflammation to the intestinal tract as helminths downregulate immune responses.

Helminthic therapy with T. suis has been reported to be safe. Trichuris suis is similar to the human whipworm Trichuris trichiura, but its normal host is pigs. T. suis can colonize people but only for a short term and the worms cannot replicate in people.

[edit] Trial results

A 24 week trial with 29 Crohn's disease patients showed remarkable results. After 24 weeks 79.3% of the patients showed a response to the treatment and 72.4% of the patients were in remission. 100% of patients which were on immunosupressive treatment at the time of the study showed a response to the treatment after 24 weeks.1

A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with 59 Ulcerative Colitis patients was done by the same group of researchers. Combining data of the trial, 47.8% of the patients given helminths showed a response compared to 15.4% of those who received a placebo. No side effects or complications were reported. 2