Grant: Operating Grant

The incidence of arthritic disease is increasing globally. Joint inflammation is severely debilitating and impacts millions of Canadians, disrupting the quality of life of the patients and their families, and has a major socio-economic implication (eg healthcare costs & lost productivity). A variety of drugs are used to treat the symptoms of arthritic disease, such as pain and swelling, but these often have undesirable side-effects and while they can be effective in providing symptom relief there is currently no cure for arthritis. A more comprehensive knowledge of the mechanisms that cause inflammation, and those of the resolution phase, is required to develop better therapies and advance towards a cure for arthritis. This research proposal presents a novel way to address this issue. Recent studies show that infection with worm parasites in laboratory models of human disease can alleviate the disease. While the exact mechanism of this effect is unclear, and varies between model systems, it appears that the hosts' natural response to infection with a worm parasite can block concomitant disorders. Using a mouse model of joint inflammation, preliminary data show that mice infected with the tapeworm, Hymenolepis diminuta, have significantly less joint swelling and recover quicker from the inflammatory insult. Thus, we have designed a series of investigations to explore how infection with H. diminuta exerts this anti-inflammatory effect. These studies will assess immune and neural derived factors in the development and recovery from the inflammatory insult and will use measurements of inflammation (ie. immune cell infiltrate) and disease symptomatology (ie. joint swelling & pain perception) to assess the effectiveness of parasitic infection to block arthritic disease. We anticipate that we will identify new immune and nervous mechanisms that regulate the extent of arthritis and that these findings can lead to progress in the treatment of these disabling conditions.