Quiz 3 (Lecture 11)

Question 1

The ancient history of the disease

Answer 1

Paleolithic (>10,000 BCE)– old friends hypothesis
Then 1st epidemiological transition
Neolithic (3300 BCE), Bronze (1300 BCE), Iron age to Preindustrial (1800 CE)– settled lifestyle so more helminths and orofecal
Then 2nd epidemiological transition
Modern times– less disease but disturbed and less varied gut microbiota

Question 2

Infectious diseases have

Answer 2

declined due to vaccination, antibiotics, and hygiene, autoimmune disease have increased

Question 3

There is a ___ spatial correlation between pathogens and autoimmune disease

Answer 3

negative

Question 4

Experiment mismatch

Answer 4

• the impact of sterile conditions on female NOD mice: a diabetes model
• removing microorganisms from the gut increases the rate of diabetes
• worms prevent autoimmunity in many animal models

Question 5

Crohn’s disease

Answer 5

is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease with persistent diarrhea, abdominal cramps and pain, fever, and fatigue

Question 6

Crohn’s disease treatment with pig whipworm eggs

Answer 6

• 4 patients with Crohns improved after ingesting 2500 embryonated ova
• patients who received 2500 ova every 3 weeks for 24 weeks responded with a significant reduction of symptoms
• Bigger sample size didn’t have as favorable results

Question 7

There are ideal therapeutic characteristics for helminths

Answer 7

because it doesn’t multiply in the host, cannot directly spread with close contact, and has little to no pathogenic potential

Question 8

The next steps are ____ (secretions of helminths) which would be used instead of helminths

Answer 8

Secretomes

Question 9

Multiple sclerosis is

Answer 9

a demyelinating disease in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged
this damage disrupts the ability of parts of the nervous system to communicate

Question 10

treating MS lesions with helminths (parasitemia)

Answer 10

slows the progression of lesions
- treating the parasites accelerates it

Question 11

The mechanism for MS and parasitemia

Answer 11

worms modulate signaling in specific areas of our immune system (due to us having worm infections over evolutionary times)

Question 12

simple homeostasis

Answer 12

infection distracts the immune system from operating at the level of competition for cytokines, growth factors, or simply suitable space in the lymph tissue
- status: is plausible, not ruled out

Question 13

Down-regulation

Answer 13

of the immune response to avoid inflammatory damage in sustained infections in such a broad way that allergic and autoimmune reactions are also dampened
- status: possible but good evidence for more specific interference with signaling

Question 14

worms evolved to become

Answer 14

master manipulators of host immune systems

Question 15

worms that parasitize vertebrates send

Answer 15

their eggs out into a hostile environment with low chances of colonizing a new host
- must produce millions of eggs over long periods of time to ensure reproductive success

Question 16

Why did the human body co-evolve to allow such manipulation?

Answer 16

to protect itself from overreaction to chronic infection

Question 17

The inflammatory responses disrupts…

Answer 17

local physiology, and if it does not succeed in eliminating the pathogen, then the cost it imposes are not worth bearing
- inflammatory response to infection can have a high price

Question 18

cost of inflammation example 1918 flu epidemic

Answer 18

• mortality rates high among young adults
• viral infection induced a cytokine storm that provoked intense inflammation

Question 19

Worms can be a

Answer 19

double-edged sword
- worm infections may protect against autoimmune diseases in developed countries
- in the tropics, worm infections: increase the susceptibility of the human host to tuberculosis, AIDS, malaria, etc.
- Worms reduce protection offered by vaccines by interfering with the immune response