How a high fat diet allows expulsion of intestinal parasite worms

Date:
February 6, 2023
Source:
Lancaster University
Summary:
Scientists have discovered that a high-fat diet allows the immune
system to eliminate a parasitic worm which is a major cause of
death and illness in the developing world. Parasitic worms affect
up to a billion people, particularly in developing nations with
poor sanitation. One of these parasites known as 'whipworm' can
cause long lasting infections in the large intestine. Researchers
have discovered that a high-fat diet allows the immune system to
eliminate the parasite.


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FULL STORY ========================================================================== Scientists have discovered that a high-fat diet allows the immune system
to eliminate a parasitic worm which is a major cause of death and illness
in the developing world.


========================================================================== Parasitic worms affect up to a billion people, particularly in developing nations with poor sanitation. One of these parasites known as "whipworm"
can cause long lasting infections in the large intestine.

Researchers from Lancaster University and the University of Manchester
in the UK have discovered that a high-fat diet allows the immune system
to eliminate the parasite.

Lead author Dr Evelyn Funjika, formerly at Manchester and now at the
University of Zambia, said: "Just like the UK, the cheapest diets are
often high in fat and at-risk communities to whipworm are increasingly utilising these cheap diets. Therefore, how worm infection and western
diets interact is a key unknown for developing nations.

"In order to be able to study how nutrition affects parasite worm
infection, we have been using a mouse model, Trichuris muris, closely
related to the human whipworm Trichuris trichiura and seeing how a
high-fat diet impacts immunity." It has been previously shown that
immune responses which expel the parasite rely on white blood cells called T-helper 2 cells, specialised for eliminating gastrointestinal parasites.

The findings, published in the journal "Mucosal Immunology," demonstrate
how a high-fat diet, rather than obesity itself, increases a molecule
on T-helper cells called ST2 and this allows an increased T-helper 2
response which expels the parasite from the large intestinal lining.

Dr John Worthington from the Department of Biomedical and Life Science
at Lancaster University co-led the research.

"We were quite surprised by what we found during this study. High-fat
diets are mostly associated with increased pathology during
disease. However, in the case of whipworm infection this high fat diet
licenses the T-helper cells to make the correct immune response to expel
the worm." Co-lead Professor Richard Grencis from the University of
Manchester said: "Our studies in mice on a standard diet demonstrate
that ST2 is not normally triggered when expelling the parasite, but
the high-fat diet boosts the levels of ST2 and hence allows expulsion
via an alternative pathway." Co-lead Professor David Thornton from the University of Manchester added: "It was really fascinating that simply
altering the diet completely switched the immune response in the gut
from one that fails to expel the parasite, to one that brings about all
the correct mechanisms to eliminate it." However, Dr Worthington added
caution to the findings.

"Before you order that extra take-away, we have previously published that weight loss can aid the expulsion of a different gut parasite worm. So
these results may be context specific, but what is really exciting is the demonstration of how diet can profoundly alter the capacity to generate protective immunity and this may give us new clues for treatments for
the millions who suffer from intestinal parasitic infections worldwide."
The research was funded by the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission,
The Wellcome Trust and EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council).

* RELATED_TOPICS
o Health_&_Medicine
# Diet_and_Weight_Loss # Obesity # Nutrition # Cholesterol
o Plants_&_Animals
# Pests_and_Parasites # Biology # Microbiology #
New_Species
* RELATED_TERMS
o Diabetic_diet o Dog_skin_disorders o Immune_system o
Mediterranean_diet o Atkins_Diet o South_Beach_diet o Dieting
o Roundworm

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Lancaster_University. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Evelyn Funjika, Stefano A. P. Colombo, Kelly S. Hayes, Mary J Tozer,
Katrina A. Tyrrell, Shanshan Cai, Aduragbemi A. Faniyi, Rebecca K.

Shears, Megan Dooley, Yasmine Alshammari, Wafaa Alhazmi, Mushref
Assas, Abdullah Almilaibary, Lucy H. Jackson-Jones, David
J. Thornton, John J.

Worthington, Richard K. Grencis. High fat diet induced
resistance to helminth infection via alternative induction
of Type 2 immunity. Mucosal Immunology, 2023; DOI:
10.1016/j.mucimm.2023.01.004 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/02/230206130429.htm

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