Production and Use of Hymenolepis diminuta Cysticercoids as Anti-Inflammatory Therapeutics

Abstract

Helminthic therapy has shown considerable promise as a means of alleviating some inflammatory diseases that have proven resistant to pharmaceutical intervention. However, research in the field has been limited by a lack of availability to clinician scientists of a helminth that is relatively benign, non-communicable, affordable, and effectively treats disease. Previous socio-medical studies have found that some individuals self-treating with helminths to alleviate various diseases are using the rat tapeworm (cysticercoid developmental stage of Hymenolepis diminuta; HDC). In this study, we describe the production and use of HDCs in a manner that is based on reports from individuals self-treating with helminths, individuals producing helminths for self-treatment, and physicians monitoring patients that are self-treating. The helminth may fit the criteria needed by clinical scientists for clinical trials, and the methodology is apparently feasible for any medical center to reproduce. It is hoped that future clinical trials using this organism may shed light on the potential for helminthic therapy to alleviate inflammatory diseases. Further, it is hoped that studies with HDCs may provide a stepping stone toward population-wide restoration of the biota of the human body, potentially reversing the inflammatory consequences of biota depletion that currently affect Western society.

Socio-Medical Studies of Individuals Self-Treating with Helminths Suggest That Most Clinical Trials Assessing Helminth Therapy May Be Designed to Fail

“…The dose finding approach entails starting with a low dose of helminth and then slowly working up to higher doses until either (a) symptom relief is obtained or (b) adverse side effects are sufficient to warrant backing off on the dosage or cessation of the protocol. This dose-finding protocol has been described previously for HDCs (10). Dose finding is also readily achieved for TSO given its stability during storage in a liquid suspension and relative frequency of administration on a weekly basis.…”

“…Later studies pointed toward the idea that exposure to helminths is also important for the prevention of autoimmune diseases (6,7) and some neuropsychiatric disorders (8). In light of this information, it is perhaps unsurprising that thousands of individuals today use helminths to treat their chronic inflammatory conditions (8)(9)(10).…”

“…Previous studies collecting information from individuals self-treating with helminths (8)(9)(10) have encompassed four helminths, a wide range of disease, and more than 1000 individual cases. Data collection methods include surveys, interviews with helminth providers, and interviews with physicians who have experience observing patients who are self-treating.…”

The benign helminth Hymenolepis diminuta ameliorates chemically induced colitis in a rat model system

“…The tapeworm Hymenolepis diminuta is a good candidate for helminth therapy (Lukeš et al ., 2014) as it cannot autoinfect, does not migrate outside of the intestinal lumen, does not harm the host (Roberts, 1980; McKay, 2010), and it is relatively cheap and easy to produce (Smyth et al , 2017). Importantly, H. diminuta ameliorates inflammatory disease in many, but not all, animal models [reviewed in (McKay, 2015)] and is effective in the majority of self-treating humans (Smyth et al , 2017).…”

Parasites and their (endo)symbiotic microbes

“…It is frequently used by individuals for self-treating of inflammatory bowel disease and other intestinal inflammations and meets criteria for helminth therapy. For this purpose, its life stages are now being produced in semi-industrial amounts (Smyth et al ., 2017). The authors convincingly demonstrated that a controlled infection with H. diminuta indeed protects rats against severe inflammatory colitis by inducing a type 2 immune response, resulting in faster recovery.…”