A wriggly solution to a first-world problem

(James Cook University) Australian researchers have achieved groundbreaking results in a clinical trial using hookworms to reduce the symptoms of celiac disease. The results are also good news for sufferers of other inflammatory conditions such as asthma and Crohn's disease. In the small trial run over a year, 12 participants were each experimentally infected with 20 Necator americanus (hookworm) larvae. They were then given gradually increasing doses of gluten, with their daily dose in the fina...