[Are parasitic infections advantageous to humans?].
Humans are negatively affected by parasitic infection. However, recent researches revealed that to some extent, parasitic infections are advantageous to humans. Parasitic infections are found to benefit patients of inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes mellitus, autoimmune disease and allergic disorder. Furthermore, they promoted studies on pathogenesis of these diseases, and therefore on safe and effective therapeutic strategy. In addition, by taking the Caenorhabditis elegans as model organism, researchers have made a breakthrough in the area of life science, including signal transduction, functional genomics and drug screening.
Department of Clinical Laboratory at Laboratory Medicine Faculty, Hebei North University, Zhangjiakou 075000, China.
Wei-Dong
WD
Yin
Yi-Qing
YQ
Yang
Jin-Shun
JS
Zhang
D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000469:parasitology / Q000628:therapy; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000469:parasitology / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D015212:Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / Q000469:parasitology / Q000628:therapy; D010272:Parasitic Diseases