Hookworms have been used in trial treatments to help improve gluten tolerance in people with celiac disease. Croese et al. (2020) devised a treatment process involving two methods; the first is that patients with celiac disease are treated with a placebo and then injected with hookworms afterward. The notion is that Necator americanus larvae have an enzyme that introduces immunomodulation to the human body and hence increases gluten tolerance. Injecting the patients under trial with a placebo creates the first layer of limited protection against sustained gluten intolerance. The next phase, which is the introduction of the hookworm larvae, improves the gluten tolerance levels. Hookworm alone does not have a lasting effect, and even if it is introduced after the placebo, it does not provide a way for people to eat gluten-free diets. Therefore, the treatment process was a way to see how the effects of autoimmune reactions caused by the consumption of gluten diets can be reduced or eliminated.
In this experiment, the success rate with hookworm treatment was not high because the hookworm used, Necator americanus, is a bloodsucking parasite associated with anemia. The research, however, reported that most people injected with Necator americanus received and reacted well to the introduction of the parasite into their bodies. The disease that the introduction of hookworm is expected to treat is celiac disease. Celiac disease is an autoimmune reaction elicited by consuming food rich in gluten, such as wheat, oat, and barley. Personally, treatment through hookworm injection cannot be considered an option because of the possibility of being infected with hookworm disease, which damages the small intestines where the worm degrades the intestinal mucosa.
Reference
Croese, J., Miller, G. C., Marquart, L., Llewellyn, S., Gupta, R., Becker, L., Clouston, A. D., Welch, C., Sidorenko, J., Wallace, L., Visscher, P. M., Remedios, M. L., McCarthy, J. S., O’Rourke, P., Radford-Smith, G., Loukas, A., Norrie, M., Masson, J. W., Gearry, R. B., … Giacomin, P. R. (2020). Randomized, placebo controlled trial of experimental hookworm infection for improving gluten tolerance in celiac disease. Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology, 11(12), e00274. Web.