Tapeworm genome points way to better drug treatments

By Ben Hirschler

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have for the first time mapped the genomes of tapeworms, shedding light on the evolution of one of humankind's oldest parasites and revealing new possibilities for drug treatments.

DNA analysis of the tapeworms suggests that a number of existing medicines for cancer, viruses and other diseases may be able to fight serious illness caused by their larvae, which can spread through the body causing damaging cysts.

Identifying drugs already approved for other uses should save both time and money, said lead researcher Matthew Berriman of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, eastern England.

"Having existing drugs will act as a chemical starting-point for drug companies, cutting many years off development times."

That may encourage drugmakers, even though devastating tapeworm infections, like echinococcosis and cysticercosis, occur mainly in less developed tropical countries where there is little commercial incentive for drug development.

Larval tapeworms can exist in the body for decades before eventually causing a range of debilitating illnesses and, in some cases, death. Cysts caused by the parasites proliferate throughout the body like cancer, triggering complications such as blindness and epilepsy.

Recorded by the Ancient Greeks, tapeworms were among the first known parasites of humans. Yet finding an effective cure has proved elusive.

Tapeworm cysts are treated by chemotherapy or surgery but side effects are a problem, so new approaches are badly needed.

"These are very grotesque, almost medieval, diseases," Berriman said.

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Tapeworm genome points way to better drug treatments