Helminthic therapy and neutrophils

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Neutrophils are normally recruited to any site of injury or inflammation, so anyone with an inflammatory condition is likely to have raised neutrophils.

After penetration of the skin by hookworm larvae, neutrophils are recruited, along with CD4 T cells, macrophages and eosinophils, but a continuing helminth infection can cause a scarcity of neutrophils. [1]

Parasitic helminth infections are associated with eosinophilia; however, neutrophils are less prevalent.” [2]

One hookworm host has reported that, at 23 weeks after her first inoculation, her neutrophils tested below the normal range. [3]

And another NA host has reported:

I have now inoculated 4x over the last 10 months (amounts inoculated each time... 3x, 7x, 10x and 20x)... My neutrophils have consistently dropped over the last 12 months to the point where they are now at a reading of 1.4x10^9/L which puts me well below the accepted normal range and makes me neutropenic. [4]

See also

• A Trypsin-Sensitive Proteoglycan from the Tapeworm Hymenolepis diminuta Inhibits Murine Neutrophil Chemotaxis in vitro by Suppressing p38 MAP Kinase Activation

• Helminthic therapy and eosinophils

The reintroduction to the digestive tract of a controlled number of specially domesticated, mutualistic helminths (intestinal worms) in the form of microscopic eggs or larvae to reconstitute a depleted biome to treat or prevent chronic inflammation, autoimmune disease and other immune-related disorders, including allergy.

A helminth that lives in the small intestine. Necator americanus (NA) is the only hookworm species used in helminthic therapy. Its microscopic larvae are applied periodically to the skin.

The active immature form of an insect, or an animal such as a helminth, which develops from an egg and eventually transforms again into its adult state.

Eosinophils are a specialised type of white blood cell with a variety of both harmful and beneficial functions. Their numbers rise temporarily following inoculation with helminths.

An intestinal worm which grows large enough to be seen with the naked eye when mature but which is microscopic when administered in helminthic therapy. Wikipedia:Helminths

An organism that lives in or on another organism (its host) and benefits at the host’s expense. (The organisms used in helminthic therapy are, strictly speaking, not parasites, but mutualists, because they have a mutually beneficial symbiotic relationship with their hosts.)

The introduction of an infectious agent into an organism. Helminth inoculation

the human hookworm, Necator americanus