The presentation is about the various uses of parasites in solving the major problems faced by the world today.From treating autoimmune disease to degradation of plastic ,clearly parasites can be one of the most useful organisms.

1. The Talented Parasites
BY: SIDDHI
ROLL NO: 8035

2. Their Talents
• Immunomodulation
• Act as Non-toxic Weapons in farming
• Odor Detecting Agents
• Plastic Degradation
Wasps
Wax Worm

3. Immunomodulation
BY PARASITES

4. Helminthic Immunomodulation
• Parasites can live in human intestine for up
to 18 years.
• To live for so long, they defeat host defenses .
• In a typical helminth infection, Th1 immune
responses will be down-regulated because this
amount of inflammation is not good for either
the host or the helminth .
• Helminths will secrete molecules that will
drive the immune response towards a Th2 and
T reg response to ‘tone down’ the immune
system to reduce the amount of inflammation
caused by the immune system. The exact
mechanism of this has not yet been
determined, but it is the focus of much
research to identify these molecules and the
hope is that they will be discovered soon.
Source: ucvmhelminthology.wordpress.com

6. The Hygiene Hypothesis
• For several decades, the developed
world has seen steady increasing
incidence of autoimmune disease.
• The Hygiene Hypothesis (HH)
attributes the dramatic increase in
autoimmune and allergic diseases
observed in Western countries to the
reduced exposure to diverse immuno -
regulatory infectious agents.
• The study suggested that declining
family size, improvements in household
amenities, and increases in personal
cleanliness reduced opportunities for
cross infections in young families,
resulting in a more widespread clinical
expression of atopic diseases.
(Too Clean…to Much Hypothesis)
https://www.listland.com/top-10-facts-about-hookworms-
and-autoimmune-disease/

7. Helminthic Therapy
• Helminthic therapy is an experimental form of immunotherapy used in the treatment of
chronic inflammation, autoimmune disease and other immunological disorders including
allergy.
• “For the past four months, every two weeks, I have been wandering over to my
refrigerator, fetching out for myself a shotglass-sized vial of pig whipworms from
Thailand, and swallowing the entire vial. But I don’t stop there. Two weeks later, I drip
a tiny pipette down my throat of rat tapeworms, harvested by a laboratory in the UK.”
• So this is what helminthic therapy is!!
Source: https://helminthictherapywiki.org .
https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/

8. The
Mechanism
DC-Dendritic cells
Th : T-helper cells
IL : InterleukinDivergent outcome of TH2 responses in industrialized (low pathogen
exposure) and developing countries (high pathogen exposure).
TH2 responses are characterized by increased IgE to allergens,
mastocytosis, and eosinophils. Mast cell degranulation and release of
inflammatory mediators leads to mucus production and smooth muscle
cell contraction, precipitating allergic diseases of the airways.

9. A Non-toxic Weapons in farming
Problem!! Solution

10. Pest – Control
Solutions
• Aphidius colemani is a parasitic wasp native to North America
useful for biological control of aphids in greenhouses and outdoor
growing.
• These tiny (1/8" or 2-3 mm) aphid parasites seek out aphid
colonies to provide food and a place to oviposit.
• Adult A. colemani respond to alarm signals from plants to locate
the aphids where they feed on the honeydew aphids excrete.
• Parasitization occurs when females lay their eggs inside aphid
nymphs. A. colemani eggs hatch into larvae which feed on the
nymphs from the inside, the nymph swells and hardens into a
leathery, grey or brown colored mummy similarly to effects
of Aphelinus abdominalis. Once larvae mature, adult A.
colemani wasps chew their way out of the aphid mummy and
emerge to seek out aphids. These parasites are a good choice for
year-round use (in greenhouses and outdoors) as the short days of
winter do not affect them.Source: https://www.arbico-organics.com/product/aphid-parasite-aphidius-ervi-mummies

11. The Lifecycle

12. Odor detecting Agents!!
• Detect 3-octanone, a chemical
produced by certain toxic
fungi that infect corn and
peanut crops.
• Detect 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4-
dnt), a chemical used in
certain explosives
• Detect chemical odors that are
associated with certain human
diseases, including lung
cancer, skin cancer and
stomach ulcers.

13. •These wasps do not sting and have an
extremely sensitive olfactory system!!
•In order to improve their foraging efficiency
when searching for hosts to lay eggs, they
learn from their positive and negative
encounters and become classically
conditioned to odors that hosts or food are
there.
•Unlike dogs, wasps identify odors through
scent receptor neurons on their antennae.
Meet Microplitis croceipes!!

14. The Wasp Hound
• Using sugar water to train the wasps to associate various scents
with food,
• Rains several years ago developed a machine called the Wasp
Hound.
• This portable nose can monitor the behavior of wasps trained to
respond to a particular scent, or volatile compound.
• The Wasp Hound is a 3-inch pipe about 10 inches long. A fan and a
Web camera close one end. Inside, a tray places four or five wasps
over a tiny pinhole in the removable white cap that covers the other
end.
• Once the conditioned wasps are loaded, the fan sucks air through
the pinhole in the cap. If the scent they've been trained to recognize
whiffs through, they will crowd around the pinhole. If the scent's
not there, they just hang out
• The Web camera sends an image of the wasps to a computer. There,
software analyzes the amount of dark space created around the
pinhole by the wasps against the white background of the cap,
giving a more objective view and answer to whether they are
having a positive or negative response to the odor they were trained
to detect. It doesn't take long for the handler to get the answer.

15. Biodegradation of
plastic
BY : WAX WORMS
•100 wax worms when kept in a plastic
shopping bag, holes started to appear after
40 minutes, with a reduction of 92mg
after 12 hours.!!
•Analysis showed the wax worms
transformed the polyethylene into
ethylene glycol, a chemical used to make
polyester and anti-freeze.

16. Some Facts.
• Wax moths lay their eggs inside hives where the wax worms grow on
beeswax.
• The worms are known for living like parasites in bee colonies and damaging
hives by eating their wax comb.
• Researchers said breaking down plastic and beeswax required similar types of
chemical bonds.
• Wax is a polymer, a sort of natural plastic, and has a chemical structure not
dissimilar to polyethylene.
• When the team mashed up the worms and smeared them into plastic they had
similar degradation results to when the caterpillar "ate through" the plastic.
• The caterpillars are not just eating the plastic without modifying its chemical
make-up. We showed that the polymer chains in polyethylene plastic are
actually broken by the wax worms.
• The next steps for us will be to try and identify the molecular processes in this
reaction and see if we can isolate the enzyme responsible.
• "If a single enzyme is responsible for this
chemical process, its reproduction on a large
scale using biotechnological methods should be
achievable." Wax worms in the bee hives
Federica
Bertocchini

17. Thank you!!