Baby rats with worms in their gut were resistant to brain inflammation than rats with worm-free gut, says a study conducted at Duke University published in an online journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity.

The interesting factor about the study is that rats received resistance from their infested mothers as early as in the womb. The researchers believe that the study findings could open doors for treatment of many diseases linked to inflammation like cognitive decline, autism, Alzheimer's and depression, according to Science Daily.

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It is to be noted that the researchers from Duke University reported in their earlier studies that when rats were infected by bacteria at very early age, the immune cells present in their brain became hypersensitive and secreted a kind of messenger molecules called cytokines continuously that resulted in cognitive problems later in life, reported News Medical.

Staci Bilbo, a neuroscientist in the Duke University noted, "We have faced bacterial infections throughout our entire evolutionary history, presumably also during the neonatal period. It always seemed kind of strange that the immune system would have evolved to overreact like that." She also added doubtfully that "maybe this isn't how the immune system evolved to work."  

The researchers tested the rats free from worms, fed and grown in the lab atmosphere and rats that are present in the farm that ate and grew up in natural environment which had worms in their gut. When both sets of rats were infected with bacteria simultaneously, farm rats were found to be resistant to overproduction of cytokines that usually resulted in cognitive problems in their adult stage.

In the other set of experiment, the researchers studied lab grown rats and rats born to mothers deliberately infested with tapeworms but were fed and grown in lab atmosphere after birth. The newborns of both groups were injected with E. coli and with the cell wall of the bacteria for the second time in their adulthood. The worm-free rats showed excessive immune response of overproducing cytokines; whereas, the worm-free rats born to tapeworm infested mothers showed good immune response but did not over react.

The scientist explained that it could be because of depletion of life-forms that once lived in our body, gut worms in particular that resulted in inflammation and some autoimmune diseases. The researchers call the life form depletion concept as "Biome Depletion Theory," reported Express Healthcare. 

Tagstapeworm, Alzheimer's Disease, Cognitive Impairment, Autism, Gut-worms