Comments on: Build Me A Tapeworm

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 12:18:37 +0000

Everything in its place is all fine. Like the wildebeest and lion. Human body and worms.
I am very interested in self infection with worms. But would I be doing anything potentially irreversible.

[CZ: Do **not** self-infect with worms. The lion and the wildebeest may be part of the balance of nature. But do you really want to be the wildebeest?]

By: Are Hookworms the Next Claritin? | Discoblog | Discover Magazine

Are Hookworms the Next Claritin? | Discoblog | Discover Magazine — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 15:16:14 +0000

[...] Related Content: Discoblog: Can Cigarettes *Decrease* the Effect of Respiratory Allergies? DISCOVER: Jared Diamond on The Arrow of Disease The Loom: Build Me A Tapeworm [...]

By: A Tapeworm To Call My Own | The Loom | Discover Magazine

A Tapeworm To Call My Own | The Loom | Discover Magazine — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:21:25 +0000

[...] parasite. It has the bizarre anatomy that you’d expect from a tapeworm–an animal that has abandoned brains, eyes, and mouth, and has turned its skin into inside-out intestines. Its head is festooned [...]

By: garin

garin — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:32:32 +0000

Some species of tapeworm secrete a molecule that is phosphorylated by the human TGF-beta type I receptor. TGF-beta activates foxp3 in human T cells which has been suspected in the transformation to regulatory T cells (Tregs). Cannot help but speculate that is how some tapeworms evades the host immune system. And since the lack of Tregs is suspected in a handful of human diseases, one wonders if the lack of tapeworms could be partially responsible for some of those diseases.

The murine model of chemically induced colitis is reversed by inoculation with a murine tapeworm. This mechanism is block by neutralizing IL-10. Tregs secrete lots of Il-10.

http://www.jimmunol.org/cgi/content/full/174/11/7368

There are several phase II trials testing hookworm and pig whipworm for the treatment of human colitis, asthma and multiple sclerosis. Doubt anyone will ever conduct a tapeworm trial. Seems there is no getting over the “ick” factor with this one…

Poor Dr. Fujita.

By: Doug Jones

Doug Jones — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 07:33:40 +0000

The funniest, most disgusting, horrifying tale of a tapeworm experience. Follow link at your own risk. It takes guts... http://fray.com/drugs/worm/

By: Carl Zimmer

Carl Zimmer — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 14:46:55 +0000

Thanks, Dr. Park. (FYI, Dr. Park is one of the authors of the tapeworm paper that was the seed of this post.)

By: Joong-Ki Park

Joong-Ki Park — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 06:56:34 +0000

I agree with Carl. Evloutionary change of parasitic life style back to free-living mode does not seem to be highly likely, once it was successfully established in their life cycle. There is one paper I recommend to read about this issue.
Siddal, M. Brooks, M.E., Desser, S.S. (1993). Phylogeny and the reversibility of parasitism. Evolution, 47(1):308-313.

By: Carl Zimmer

Carl Zimmer — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 13:32:30 +0000

Anthony [13]–There’s no evidence I know of of tapeworms evolving into free-living forms. Hard to imagine them doing so, but it’s never good to rely on one’s own sense of incredulity when it comes to biology.

By: Anthony Docimo

Anthony Docimo — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 03:10:32 +0000

hi.
Interesting facts about tapeworms. Thank you for bringing such information to light.

One question springs to mind, reading that, though: could tapeworms return to being external parasites, or even free-swimming animals? Or have they specialized to such a degree that they can’t (easily) move to other niches?

Just curious.

have nice days.

By: Henry Gee

Henry Gee — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 20:28:24 +0000

Thanks Carl, I shall. Or I would, were I not so darned hungry. And an aside which I just know I shall regret. When I stumble across hellfire evangelism my mind cheekily adopts the lisp of a child and whispers “Jesus Wants Me For A Tapeworm”. There, the triumph of Evolution over Creation in just six words. So help me.

By: Doug

Doug — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 20:46:39 +0000

Thank you Jud – it was no mere fluke, you know.

By: Carl Zimmer

Carl Zimmer — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 19:49:58 +0000

Henry: Let your intestinal parasites finish up dinner, and then get thee to the paper. There’s some fairly high-level discussion of acoels etc. in there.

By: Henry Gee

Henry Gee — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 18:18:46 +0000

Curse you, Zimmer, for scrolling this past me just after I’d eaten dinner (raw pig brains). However, what intrigues me most is not the exciting lives of parasites, interesting though these are, but the cladogram. Cestodes, Trematodes and Turbellaria are a natural group snuck next to Lophotrochozoan outgroups … does this mean that ‘higher’ flatworms are now Lophotrochozoa, and that the lowest (and cuddliest) flatworms, the acoels, have at last been Hurled Headlong, to coin a phrase, from the Aetheral Sky? Fascinating. Pass the sweetbreads.

By: Jud

Jud — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 12:30:14 +0000

Hat’s off to you, Doug – it’s so seldom I find anyone who makes even worse puns than I do.

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 17:01:40 +0000

Nice one – I always thought we had the Protestants to thank for these ‘orrible creatures, but no longer will I curse Martin Luther and his Diet of Worms.

By: Michael B

Michael B — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:35:26 +0000

Kind of makes you regret missing your annual full body MRI.

By: llewelly

llewelly — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 01:57:48 +0000

That’s actually only a tiny fraction of the full diversity of tapeworms, which now stands at about six thousand species.

If memory serves, there are somewhat fewer than six thousand species of mammals presently alive. Just for proportion …

By: Marlene S. J.

Marlene S. J. — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 23:38:16 +0000

Give me a king cobra to milk, a saltwater crocodile to handle or even a free ride on the back of a hammershark but an egg of a tapeworm? Hell no!

By: cephyn

cephyn — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 22:43:34 +0000

Fascinating creatures – and just thinking about them makes me queasy. 8P I had trouble watching “House” last week.

By: Doug

Doug — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 22:22:59 +0000

The Human [and many other animals] may even display remnants of evolution from Porifera.

The Gastrointestinal tract could be a series of multifunctional, direct links to Porifera if sphincters evolved from the holdfast.
See bottom, left of Figure 2: The calcareous syconoid sponge, Scypha . Porifera58L.gif
http://webs.lander.edu/rsfox/invertebrates/porifera.html

By: Roy

Roy — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 20:19:39 +0000

Parasites have proved so clever (– you know what I mean –) that they make Hannibal Lecter look unimaginative and, frankly, dull as dishwater.