http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/4294448.stm

Sort of old but I thought some of you would like to know.
"Scientists are looking for volunteers to help them find a cure for
allergies - by injecting them with hookworms.

Researchers at Nottingham City Hospital need 60 volunteers who suffer
from allergies to carry hookworms.

The tests, based on research done in Africa, could help cure people
with over-sensitive immune systems.

Doctors believe people carrying the parasite have a reduced risk of
allergies because their immune system is "distracted" by the worm.

Town asthma

John Britton, a professor of epidemiology at Nottingham City Hospital,
who has done research in Ethiopia, discovered people living in the
countryside are less likely to have allergies but more likely to have
parasites.

"We found higher levels of asthma in the towns and we believe this was
partly down to a lower number of people carrying parasites," he said.

I would also want to know a bit more about it before treatment like
that
Leshie Chandrapala, asthma sufferer

For the research, volunteers will receive 10 Papua New Guinea strains
of the worm, which can grow up to a centimetre long.

"We are trying to find out if we can use the worms or their products to
lesson the impact of allergies," Prof Britton said.

"The worms pass into the bloodstream before being trapped in the lungs.

"They are then coughed up and swallowed into the stomach, then the
bowels, where they breed before the larvae pass out of the body. "

Researchers think some kinds of hookworm secrete proteins which can
damp down the immune response that causes asthma.

Leshie Chandrapala, 25, from Forest Fields, who suffers from asthma,
said he would think twice before taking part in the tests.

"I find my asthma is often linked to stress and I have not been that
stressed recently," he said.

"I would also want to know a bit more about it before treatment like
that."

Researchers have already tested the worms on themselves to find the
appropriate dosage.

The £250,000 research project is looking for 30 asthma sufferers and
30 hayfever or allergy suffers for the 12-week trial. "