Asthma researchers go with gut feeling

Researchers think they may have found an unlikely new ally in the battle against asthma – gut parasites.

Hookworm infection can suppress their host’s immune system perhaps helping asthma sufferers

The research, led by British researcher Professor John Britton, of the University of Nottingham, along with Dr Gail Davey and colleagues at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, will study over 1,000 children born in urban and rural areas of Butajira in southern Ethiopia to see whether infection of the gut with either hook worms or other gut parasites protects against developing asthma later in life. 

Professor Britton said: “This research is groundbreaking because it provides a unique opportunity to look at the effects of hookworm infection from birth. We have good evidence of protection in adults but don't know when the critical period for infection is. If we can find that out, we can start to look for the mechanisms that might allow us to turn this to wider therapeutic benefit.”

Gut parasites, like the hookworm, have evolved ways of surviving the host's immune system by dampening it down. The suggestion is that this mechanism also dampens the host's immune responses to other invading bodies, such as the allergens that trigger asthma symptoms, thereby lessening the risk of fatal asthma attacks.

Britton has pioneered research in this area but this will be his first piece of research to study the relationship between asthma and gut parasite infection from birth, recording if and at which age the children become infected with parasites, what type of parasites they are infected with and the extent of the infection. The team will then be able to explore the relation between infection and the occurrence of asthma, allergy and eczema symptoms.

Dr Leanne Male, assistant director of Research at Asthma UK said: “Asthma can develop at any age and it is incredibly difficult to identify exactly what causes it. The UK has one of the highest rates of asthma in the world, whereas countries in Africa, like Ethiopia, have traditionally had much lower rates. Now asthma is on the rise in parts of Africa too and this study will examine the reasons for this, also shedding light on why the UK has such a high prevalence.”