Scientists Look to Tapeworm for Drug Model
March 12 -- This may be a bit tough for the squeamish, but hang in there for a minute and you'll see how the lowly tapeworm may save consumers billions of dollars on pharmaceutical drugs in the years ahead while helping clean up the environment.
That sounds a bit grand for a parasite that thrives inside everything from rats to humans, but scientists at the University of Wisconsin in Madison have discovered that the tapeworm's ability to adapt to an extremely hostile environment may lead the way to making pharmaceutical drugs far more efficient. That would mean less drugs to do the same job, reducing cost and waste along the way.
A Worm With Grip
Tapeworms consist of a series of segments that can number in the thousands, breaking off from time to time to form new colonies, and eventually laying eggs that can make their way into the brain or the heart. It is most at home inside the small intestine of some other host.
What makes the tapeworm remarkable is its ability to remain in the intestine despite the fact that the body frequently flushes itself out through a process that cleanses the gut of harmful bacteria. Scientists have known for some time that the worm has a series of hooks and suckers to help it hang in there, but to a team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin, that explanation seemed inadequate.
It would be a little like keeping your footing on a slippery bank during a flash flood.
So John Oaks, professor of comparative bioscience and an expert on parasites, and Paul Bass, a gastrointestinal expert in the school of pharmacy, teamed up with other scientists at the university to see if they could find some other explanation for how the tapeworm works its magic. In short, they wanted to know precisely how the tapeworm hangs on inside an organ that is designed to get rid of everything else.
That "everything else," by the way, includes a huge chunk of the medications given to humans and animals. The drugs don't stay in the intestine long enough to be fully absorbed, so much of the medication simply passes through the body and enters the environment as human or animal waste. So about 50 percent of many drugs, according to Oaks, and up to 99 percent of others, never get a chance to help cure the disease they were designed to fight.
Related Stories
ABC News Live