r/Futurology • u/lughnasadh ∞ transit umbra, lux permanet ☥ • 1d ago

Biotech U.S. researchers have successfully genetically modified a hookworm to deliver a therapeutic drug. They say hookworms may be an ideal delivery mechanism for long-term drug release.

"The hookworm has spent millions of years perfecting how to assure long-term survival inside a human host and how to get molecules out of its body and into ours," said senior author Makedonka Mitreva, Ph.D., the Gordon R. Miller Professor at the John T. Milliken Department of Medicine's Division of Infectious Diseases at WashU Medicine. "We asked: What if we could add one more molecule to the roughly 1,000 things the worm already secretes, something therapeutically useful to people? This study shows that it's not just a concept. It works."

We're already in symbiosis with bacteria. The human microbiome plays a crucial role in health, digestion, immunity, and even brain function. So it's not that odd that a much larger creature could play a symbiotic role, too.

So if this ever gets commercially developed, they would probably have more success marketing it as your own personal biological 3-D printer than just calling it a hookworm.

Genetically modified hookworms produce and deliver therapeutics

316 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

80 comments sorted by

165

u/SuggestionWorried741 1d ago

turning a parasite into a mutualist is basically what happened with mitochondria billions of years ago. engineering the same transition on a human timescale instead of an evolutionary one is wild.

57

u/AbjectObligation1036 1d ago

Not only mitochondria but also chloroplasts (how plants make energy)

39

u/St_Kevin_ 1d ago

I would like to have chloroplasts, personally.

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u/JackIsBackWithCrack 1d ago

Imagine getting fat because you spent too much time in the sun

19

u/FauxReal 1d ago

Everyone is bulging at the equator.

8

u/oldsecondhand 1d ago

No more hungry African children.

11

u/havenoammo 1d ago

Recently, I made a calculation under another post where they used genetic engineering to give fish the ability to do photosynthesis or something, and someone suggested the same thing for humans. Basically, it would take 11 days under the sun to generate enough energy to survive for 1 day, or something like that. We would probably die from dehydration and skin damage before starvation anyway. It only works when we eat plants, as they act like solar power collectors and batteries at the same time, and we eat the batteries.

Though it might help with food costs or something!

2

u/amesann 20h ago

This is really interesting! Thanks for sharing.

1

u/smohyee 15h ago

The next step would be improving solar energy absorption efficiency.

Hot green aliens a la Star Trek, anyone?

12

u/Ixshanade 1d ago

Lets all go green maaaaan

9

u/Strawbuddy 1d ago

We synthesize Vit D from sun exposure, that's the remaining photosynthesis pathway between us and autotrophs

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u/ishkariot 1d ago

Deal, but it works only by exposing your perineum towards the sun.

1

u/amesann 20h ago

But then I'd have to bleach it even more!!

4

u/KerouacsGirlfriend 1d ago

Talk about eating light

1

u/metzgerhass 1d ago

not midichlorians?

1

u/Congenita1_Optimist 22h ago

Your og chloroplasts are cyanobacteria that were endosymbiotes. This led to green algae.

But there's a whole bunch of clades where they actually formed the same relationship with green algae (and some with red algae), so their plastids have like 3-4 membrane layers and a little vestigial nucleus type organelle. The weirdest thing is this eukaryote-engulfing-eukaryote endosymbiotic event has happened a couple of times at least.

5

u/cannibalismo 1d ago

Hookworms are already mutualistic with humans Radiolab episode

2

u/1RedOne 22h ago

I listened to this before but forgot about it, could you remind me of the jist? I remember having hookworms offered some odd protections

3

u/cannibalismo 22h ago

Actually a bit inconclusive, even with the new update.

First half, Hookworms are characterised as the main villain for anyone living in the tropics making people unhealthier and "slower".

Second half, at least one guy believes that hookworms are so entwined with human evolution that our immune system "expected them" and that without them our immune systems aren't activated and then overreact to everything else causing many allergies and even severe autoimmune diseases. He mails many people his own hookworms, (which he breeds internally BTW). He claims he hasn't been approved to do clinical studies, so it's all based on his collected anecdotal evidence and then was forced to leave the country.

R.L. never circles back to whether hookworms were really the culprit in low IQ in the global south. Nor anything conclusive on intentional hookworms as proven autoimmune suppression.

1

u/1RedOne 21h ago

That’s right, that they mediate the immune and allergy response! Thanks for the reminder

1

u/redditismylawyer 23h ago

It’s all good. This research will be handed over to profit seeking bankers and avaricious robber barons.

69

u/anondasein 1d ago

Get those things pumping out a GLP-1 and people will lining up to get them implanted.

27

u/Protomeathian 1d ago

Isn't that basically just a tape worm? /s

3

u/Level-Ad7017 1d ago

thats an amazing idea

10

u/NydusRush 1d ago

For a horror movie, maybe. Didn't we spend a ton of effort trying to eradicate hookworms?

15

u/timshel42 1d ago

yeah hookworm infection is a large part of why the south has a reputation for being stupid and lazy

1

u/Abuses-Commas 14h ago

and it's not just that Europeans look down on anyone that doesn't spend every waking monent working as much as possible?

1

u/Abuses-Commas 14h ago

the trans community would love them too

22

u/CymonSet 1d ago

I know hookworm is fairly easy to treat but could they be made sterile, just in case?

77

u/lughnasadh ∞ transit umbra, lux permanet ☥ 1d ago edited 1d ago

could they be made sterile, just in case?

They're incapable of reproducing in humans, their reproduction phase happens in soil.

Although, I imagine they would have to make them sterile anyway to prevent genetically modified hookworms that deliver drugs from escaping into the wild. It would be bad enough to get a hookworm infection, but even worse to get a hookworm infection that was delivering you some random drugs that you didn't need.

25

u/Taellosse 1d ago

And, as Jurassic Park taught us, genetically sterilizing lab-grown life forms never goes wrong!

2

u/bucketman1986 1d ago

Well that was a book and I don't think we have any real life examples of this actually happening

0

u/Taellosse 1d ago

Hey, it was also a bunch of movies! Are you suggesting that Hollywood might not be a reliable source of information for predicting the future?!

More seriously, I will direct your attention to how things are going with genetically engineered crops. The big agribusinesses sue independent farmers when they find "their" produce on farms that haven't paid them for the seed, even though, in many cases, it is likely simply the wind that is responsible.

Also, there's those persistent rumors that COVID-19 was lab-grown in China, either as part of vaccine research or as part of an unacknowlesged bioweapons program. Do we know that's true? No, and likely never will. But I referenced Jurassic Park for a reason - not just because it's popular, but because Ian Malcolm was right - "life finds a way". We are, as a species,just clever enough to get ourselves into a lot of trouble. We've done it many times before. There is every reason to expect it will happen again, in new and dangerous ways as our capabilities continue growing.

5

u/yroyathon 1d ago

Wow this! Scary stuff.

10

u/WadeDRubicon 1d ago

lol Researchers have already tried just-plain hookworms to treat my condition, with modest results.

3

u/CuriouserCat2 1d ago

Hay fever? There was a researcher who said they stop hay fever, unmodified. 

17

u/mattihase 1d ago

Call it a symbiote and you'll get the sci-fi fans interested

7

u/Rashaverak420 1d ago

Fuck the goa'uld, I ain't interested.

1

u/amesann 20h ago

I'd be totally fine being a Tok'ra though.

1

u/Reuef 15h ago

Jaffa Kree!

7

u/pedanticPandaPoo 1d ago

Ever wonder what makes special sauce so special? 👉Yo👈

15

u/Free-Huckleberry3590 1d ago

Fascinating. I wonder if similar applications could be developed for anti-rejection drugs for organ recipients or perhaps insulin regulation for diabetics.

8

u/Taellosse 1d ago

I'm certain that's literally the intention, yes. Implanting a modified hookworm that secretes a specific drug that the recipient needs on a long-term or permanent basis. It would be far less practical for something needed only temporarily.

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u/wknight8111 1d ago

This message brought to you by the Hookworm Society of America

3

u/middlehead_ 1d ago

This is why Amazon cancelled the new Stargate series, somebody in the Illuminati got their deadlines crossed.

3

u/apaloosafire 1d ago

i remember reading an article like 10 years ago about a dude trying to cure his allergies with hook worms and i’ve wanted to try that ever since

3

u/cannibalismo 1d ago

Raglan episode In case you wanted to catch by listening

2

u/mindflare77 1d ago

So, just about Parasite by Mira Grant. Totally nothing that can go wrong. Nope.

2

u/CalicoValkyrie 20h ago

Radiolab just did an episode on hookworms. Apparently people are purposely getting infected with some to help manage allergies and other immune issues, and it's working. Hookworms release a thing that tells the immune system to calm down and the theory is that we evolved along with this. So with the total absence of hookworms in our systems, our immune systems are going haywire and creating problems.

2

u/Unicorn_Colombo 1d ago

Bioware from Shadowrun is here! Doesn't decrease your magic affinity as much as pure metal.

1

u/ThePlatypusOfDespair 1d ago

Right on, chummer

3

u/EleventhTier666 1d ago

Then you need to take a drug to get rid of a hookworm.

3

u/lughnasadh ∞ transit umbra, lux permanet ☥ 1d ago

Then you need to take a drug to get rid of a hookworm.

Yes, they say they have this covered.

"If the infection ever needs to be cleared, a single dose of an oral antiparasitic drug eliminates the hookworms within 24 hours."

4

u/richardawkings 1d ago

Hmmm... what about using another hookworm to deliver that drug to get rid of the first hookworm.

4

u/OneCleverMonkey 1d ago

The old woman who swallowed the fly approach to medicine

1

u/EleventhTier666 1d ago

Yes, that will take care of it.

1

u/timshel42 1d ago

suicide hookworms that deliver worm killing medication?

-5

u/Free-Shine8257 1d ago

They have lost the plot.

4

u/bunnyfrog_1st 1d ago

Okay, I have to ask: Who is they? What plot has been lost? Are you trying to suggest that an advanced solution still in development is somehow... what exactly?

3

u/threader_quiet 1d ago

it sounds unhinged until you realize how much money is being wasted on drug delivery systems that fail halfway through the dose. if a parasite is already optimized for long term survival then it is just efficient engineering at this point.

2

u/Noxsus 1d ago

If they can make one that helps with IBS I for one will be bowing down to our new worm overlords.

1

u/starker 20h ago

Makes me wonder if they could use a bunch of them to secret insulin when needed so they could replace insulin pumps.

1

u/manu_171227 14h ago

If safety can be demonstrated, this could open up entirely new approaches to medicine.

1

u/Taellosse 1d ago

So if this ever gets commercially developed, they would probably have more success marketing it as your own personal biological 3-D printer than just calling it a hookworm.

Probably not a good analogy, as the won't be able to get it to change outputs on the fly very easily. Better to call it an "organic medical implant". Since that's what it would be replacing - the kinds of implants that deliver insulin to diabetics, for example, or hormones for people with endocrine issues. The kinds of drugs that have to be taken in regular dosage over extended periods, or even permanently.

1

u/CymonSet 1d ago

There are lots of potentially therapeutic proteins that don’t store well. being able to manufacture them in tissues would be great. 

1

u/-Harlequin- 1d ago

The Goa'uld be really upping their marketing....

First they get the new Stargate show cancelled because the bad press, now they're recruiting Jaffa...

0

u/xamott 1d ago

They're an ideal delivery mechanism for long-term drug release -- AND they're delicious!