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Credit: Fernandolive on Wikimedia Commons Could a dose of hookworms provide a medication-free alternative to people with inflammatory bowel disease? The Malaghan Institute's Hookworm Therapy team, who recently published the results from their year-long clinical study, think it's possible. Published in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, the feasibility study found that hookworms were a safe and long-lasting treatment for participants with ulcerative colitis—paving the way for wider clinical studies. The Malaghan Institute has been exploring the potential therapeutic benefits of human hookworms for patients suffering allergic and inflammatory disease for a number of years. This current study was the first of its...

The new early-stage research finding comes from a team of scientists led by Imperial College London, who investigated the effectiveness and side effects of three common blood pressure medications: ACE-inhibitors, beta-blockers and calcium channel blockers. The most common treatments for high blood pressure are lifestyle changes and medications. By investigating versions of genes that mimic the effects of these drugs, the team were able to study the drugs' effectiveness -- and their potential side effects. The team, who included researchers from LMU Munich, then studied whether these gene variants -- which cause increased production of these proteins -- were linked...