Lowly worm offers new clues on stroke, heart drugs

"Worms that can survive with almost no oxygen are teaching scientists how to rescue oxygen-starved cells in humans who suffer a heart attack or stroke, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. They identified a gene that can help a cell slow down when oxygen levels get too low, protecting the cells from making fatal mistakes while starved of oxygen. Researchers hope that some day drugs can be designed to help human cells survive without oxygen. "In stroke and heart attack, cells die because they lack oxygen," said Dr. Michael Crowder of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, whose study appears in the journal Science. We're trying to find novel approaches to understanding why cells die in low-oxygen conditions," Crowder said in a telephone interview. Crowder's team used genetic engineering techniques on worms called Caenorhabditis elegans to find genes that help them survive better with little oxygen." - Reuters

Are worms vital to human health?

"Could the humble worm hold the key to wiping out allergies and a whole lot of disorders of the immune system? Researchers in Nottingham are investigating whether giving hook worms to asthma sufferers can cure their condition. Another group in the US is trying a pig worm on patients with ulcerative colitis or inflammation of the colon and bowel. And scientists in Cambridge have proved that giving an extract of the tropical worm which causes billharsia to mice can stop them developing type 1 diabetes" - BBC