{"doi":"10.1371/journal.pntd.0008101","title":"Helminth infection modulates systemic pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines implicated in type 2 diabetes mellitus pathogenesis","abstract":"BACKGROUND: The prevalence of helminth infections exhibits an inverse association with the prevalence of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and helminths are postulated to mediate a protective effect against T2DM. However, the biological mechanism behind this effect is not known. AIMS/METHODS: We postulated that helminth infections act by modulating the pro-inflammatory cytokine and chemokine milieu that is characteristic of T2DM. To examine the association of cytokines and chemokines in helminth-diabetes co-morbidity, we measured the plasma levels of a panel of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in individuals with Strongyloides stercoralis infection (Ss+) and T2DM at the time of Ss diagnosis and then 6 months after definitive anthelmintic treatment along with uninfected control individuals with T2DM alone (Ss-). PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Ss+ individuals exhibited significantly diminished levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokines-IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-12, IL-18, IL-23, IL-27, G-CSF and GM-CSF and chemokines-CCL1, CCL2, CCL3, CCL11, CXCL1, CXCL2, CXCL8, CXCL9, CXCL10 and CXCL11. In contrast, Ss+ individuals exhibited significantly elevated levels of IL-1Ra. Anthelmintic treatment resulted in increased levels of all of the cytokines and chemokines. CONCLUSIONS: Thus, helminth infections alleviate and anthelmintic therapy partially restores the plasma cytokine and chemokine levels in helminth-diabetes co-morbidity. Our data therefore offer a plausible biological mechanism for the protective effect of helminth infections against T2DM.","journal":"PLoS neglected tropical diseases","year":2020,"id":66378,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":51,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9588,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":352409,"name":"Saravanan Munisankar","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":352410,"name":"Chandrakumar Dolla","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":352411,"name":"Pradeep A. Menon","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":307493,"name":"Kannan Thiruvengadam","orcid":"0000-0002-3758-1094","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":287794,"name":"Thomas B. Nutman","orcid":"0000-0001-6887-4941","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":299467,"name":"Subash Babu","orcid":"0000-0001-9783-8042","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":351532,"name":"Anuradha Rajamanickam","orcid":"0000-0002-8143-5502","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":31,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:14:22.090509Z","pmid":"32126084","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}