A Tale of the Tapeworm: Parasite ploy suggests drug-delivery tactic
By John Travis
For the tapeworm Hymenolepis diminuta, heaven is a rat’s intestines. A single, nearly foot-long parasite can live there for years. It’s no wonder then that the tapeworm has developed means for keeping itself lodged within an often undulating mammalian gut.
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have now identified one of the parasite’s tools: A chemical that it secretes slows intestinal pulsations.
Known as cyclic guanosine monophosphate, or cGMP, the chemical may also play a role in the normal control of any mammal’s digestive system. Given that possibility, the Wisconsin investigators have filed for a patent on the idea of adding cGMP to drugs in order to lengthen the amount of time they spend in the gut and thus increase how much medicine a person absorbs.