Positive Proof-of-Concept Experiments May Lead to the World's First Treatment for Celiac Disease
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Positive proof-of-concept experiments may lead to the world's first treatment for celiac disease:
An investigational treatment for celiac disease effectively controls the condition-at least in an animal model-in a first-of-its-kind therapeutic for a condition that affects approximately 70 million people worldwide.
Currently, there is no treatment for celiac disease, which is caused by dietary exposure to gluten, a protein in wheat, barley and rye. The grains can produce severe intestinal symptoms, leading to inflammation and bloating.
Indeed, celiac disease is the bane of bread and pasta lovers around the world, and despite fastidiously maintaining a gluten-free eating plan, the disease can still lead to social isolation and poor nutrition, gastroenterologists say. It is a serious autoimmune disorder that, when left unaddressed, can cause malnutrition, bone loss, anemia, and elevated cancer risk, primarily intestinal lymphoma.
Now, an international team of scientists led by researchers in Switzerland hope to change the fate of celiac patients for the better. A series of innovative experiments has produced "a cell soothing" technique that targets regulatory T cells, the immune system components commonly known as Tregs.
The cell-based technique borrows from a form of cancer therapy and underlies a unique discovery that may eventually lead to a new treatment strategy, data in the study suggests.
"Celiac disease is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the small intestine with a global prevalence of about 1%," writes Dr. Raphael Porret, lead author of the research published in Science Translational Medicine.
"The condition is caused by a maladapted immune response to cereal gluten proteins, which causes tissue damage in the gut and the formation of autoantibodies to the enzyme transglutaminase," continued Porret, a researcher in the department of Immunology and Allergy at the University of Lausanne.
Working with colleagues from the University of California, San Francisco, as well as at the Norwegian Celiac Disease Research Center at the University of Oslo, Porret and colleagues have advanced a novel concept. They theorize that a form of cell therapy, based on a breakthrough form of cancer treatment, might also work against celiac disease.
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