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Updated: Sep 28, 2026

Cultivation of Heligmosomoides Polygyrus: An Immunomodulatory Nematode Parasite and its Secreted Products
Published on: April 6, 2015
Atopy, helminths, and cancer
Brad E Zacharia1, Brad Zacharia, Paul Sherman
1Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Abstract:
There are two hypotheses for the primary function of the T(H)/IgE system: protection against helminths that 'spills over' into inappropriate allergic responses in the modern environment, or protection from a variety of environmental carcinogens and infectious diseases that is adaptive even today. We suggest that rather than being alternatives, these two hypotheses fit into a single causal framework. Atopic responses to helminths kill, inhibit, or expel the parasites, thereby reducing their debilitating effects, the most serious of which is bladder cancer. The ultimate (evolutionary) reason for the T(H)2/IgE system may be minimizing chances that multiple biotic and abiotic hazards and carcinogens will enter the body; in some tropical areas, helminths are the major proximate (immediate) triggers of this response.
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