Immunological and Pathophysiological Outcomes of Helminth Infections and Type 2 Diabetes Comorbidity Studies in Humans and Experimental Animals—A Scoping Review

Abstract

Animal and human studies have demonstrated that helminth infections are associated with a decreased prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Lack of exposure to helminth infections has been postulated to be one mechanism to explain the markedly increased prevalence of T2DM in developed countries. However, there is still paucity of information regarding the immunological interactions between helminth infections and T2DM. The study aimed at reviewing peer-reviewed articles on host immune and pathophysiological outcomes from human and laboratory animal studies of helminth infections and T2DM comorbidity. A literature search was carried out in Google Scholar, PubMed, and EBSCOhost databases using the following keywords; immune responses OR immune modulation of helminth infections OR parasites infections AND Type 2 diabetes comorbidity in humans AND experimental/laboratory animals. Results showed that helminth infections provided some degree of protection from the pathology associated with T2DM by modulating the surrounding cytokine and chemokine milieu in humans and animals. Whilst there is some evidence regarding the protective effects of helminth infections to T2DM in cases of comorbidity, there is paucity of research in both laboratory animals and humans, with reference to the immunological and pathophysiological mechanisms which occur during comorbidity, and these constitute gaps for future research.