Mission to Tackle Parasitic Worm Infections Moves Closer to Being Accomplished

An important step forward in finding a potential treatment for an infection that affects over a billion people worldwide has been taken by researchers from The Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research (MCCIR), University of Manchester.

Gastrointestinal parasitic infections, which are worm infections in the intestine, affect nearly one quarter of the world population and have been heavily linked with poverty in poorer regions. They normally result in a chronic, long-lived infection associated with poor quality of life and health problems. A team led by Dr Mark Travis, MCCIR and the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell-Matrix Research, has identified a pathway which seems to be important in driving the chronic infection and that could now potentially be targeted for therapy.



Source: Eurekalert