Cancer-Causing Parasite Could Speed Up Wound Healing

A cancer-causing parasitic worm could help patients recover from their wounds, according to scientists at James Cook University in Australia.

A parasitic worm that kills tens of thousands of people each year could help in recovery from wounds, according to a news release. The oriental liver fluke, Opisthorchis viverrini, is caught by eating raw fish, which affects millions of people in Southeast Asia. About 26,000 people die each year due to the parasite-induced bile duct cancer that it causes, known as cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), according to a news release.

JCU scientists Dr. Michael Smout and Professor Alex Loukas found that a growth factor that is secreted by the worm propels wound healing and blood vessel growth. The researchers claimed that one of the side effects of this accelerated wound repair over many years is the risk of developing liver cancer.

Smout claimed that the discovery can be used to accelerate the healing of chronic wounds such as diabetic ulcers, and a vaccine against the worm-induced cancer could possibly be developed.

"Diabetes is a big problem as we live longer and get heavier. There are increasing numbers of inflammatory diseases such as diabetes and associated non-healing wounds. A powerful wound healing agent designed by millennia of host-parasite co-evolution may accelerate the impaired healing processes that plague diabetic and elderly patients," Smout said.

The parasite could live for decade in the human body before CCA is developed. Scientists are still learning how this growth factor controls healing, and the possibilities of this development being a potential healing agent in the future, according to the researchers. 

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