worm

Watanabe had initially seen repeated axon pearling in the nervous system of worms and grew more curious about the structures after a discussion with Swiss scientist Graham Knott, Ph.D.

"The amyloid beta affects muscles and paralyzes the worms," says Sidharth Madhavan, a PhD candidate and lead author on the study.

A doctor, Kennedy said, had told him that his abnormal brain scans were likely “caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.”

The fungus symbiotically benefits its hosts by suppressing other fungi and by protecting them against worms through this enhanced type 2 immune response, but on the flip side it exacerbates food allergies, the team discovered.

In organisms from yeast to worms to humans, nucleoli expand during aging.