title: Identifying the immunomodulatory components of helminths.
abstract: Immunomodulatory components of helminths offer great promise as an entirely new class of biologics for the treatment of inflammatory diseases. Here, we discuss the emerging themes in helminth-driven immunomodulation in the context of therapeutic drug discovery. We broadly define the approaches that are currently applied by researchers to identify these helminth molecules, highlighting key areas of potential exploitation that have been mostly neglected thus far, notably small molecules. Finally, we propose that the investigation of immunomodulatory compounds will enable the translation of current and future research efforts into potential treatments for autoimmune and allergic diseases, while at the same time yielding new insights into the molecular interface of host-parasite biology.
authors: Centre for Biodiscovery and Molecular Development of Therapeutics, Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Cairns, Qld, Australia.
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Shepherd
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Navarro
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Wangchuk
authors: D
authors: D
authors: Wilson
authors: N L
authors: NL
authors: Daly
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Loukas
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001249:Asthma / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D045424:Complex Mixtures; D006376:Helminths / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification*; D006801:Humans; D006967:Hypersensitivity / Q000276:immunology; D056747:Immunomodulation; D015212:Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy
chemical_list: D045424:Complex Mixtures
keywords: allergy/atopy; autoimmunity; excretory secretory; immunomodulatory; immunoregulation; inflammation