SCIENTISTS are inching closer to a new therapy for auto-immune disorders but many will find the treatment hard to swallow.

Queensland-based Dr James Daveson admits a "yuck factor" is involved in his research, after he deliberately infected 20 volunteers who have coeliac disease with hookworms.

The tiny parasite, which burrows through the skin before travelling via the bloodstream to live in the gut, was shown to give these people an improved tolerance for bread.

"The people playing host to live worms tolerated the gluten challenge and fared better on the tests compared to the wormless control subjects," said Dr Daveson from Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital.

"They experienced less inflammation and less damage was seen in the intestinal wall."

More than 250,000 Australians have coeliac disease, a condition in which their malfunctioning immune system treats the gluten in wheat as a foreign invader.

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Antibodies are produced that attack the wall of the bowel and this damage over time can increase a sufferer's risk of bowel cancer.

Dr Daveson said the research was based on the theory that our immune systems needed exposure to foreign organisms in order to work properly.

Several studies have shown a link between the vastly improved hygiene standards now enjoyed by humans and the growing number of autoimmune diseases.

Dr Daveson said it could be a case of the immune system picking a fight when it otherwise lacked a valid enemy.

He said the immune system may even work better with certain "friendly" organisms - like hook worms - on board.

"We have co-evolved with them ... (yet) we've cleaned up our world so well that we no longer have worms in our guts," Dr Daveson said.

"Some experts believe this is one of the reasons we're seeing an alarming increase in auto-immune disorders such as coeliac disease."

The worms used in the study are unique to humans, are not easily transmissible from person to person and unlike dog hookworm, they do not cause illness in humans.

At the end of the 21-week trial, all of the volunteers were offered medication to get rid of their parasite but all opted to keep their hookworm.

Dr Daveson will present the study's findings at the Australian Gastroenterology Week, an expert summit underway in Sydney this week.