Shadow role (Image: Peter Maschkan/Millennium Images, UK)
Editorial: Tread carefully in the immune system’s shadowlands
DELIBERATE infection with a blood-sucking worm seems an odd way to treat multiple sclerosis (MS). Yet more surprising is what this experiment may tell us about a “shadow” branch of our immune system. Completely unknown until recently, this is pointing to new ways of treating a host of complex diseases.
A couple of recent studies suggest that parasitic infection dampens inflammation and reduces relapse rates in people with MS, in which the body’s own cells are attacked by the immune system as if they…
