According to a recent report in the Washington Post, it looks like scientists have made some progress towards finding a treatment (not cure) for Celiac Disease.
A new experimental drug known currently as AT-1001 is a medication that prevents gluten from crossing the intestinal mucosa, reducing (or eliminating) common Celiac Disease symptoms. Here is some information about the study:
The study of 86 patients found that those who were given gluten and AT-1001 had fewer symptoms of gluten toxicity than those who were given gluten and a placebo. The researchers are now conducting a larger, longer trial.
“Even allowing for the fact that people in clinical trials may practice healthier habits, the fact that all of the groups showed improvement in the first week of the study is significant and helps us to plan better celiac studies,” study author Dr. Daniel Leffler, clinical research director at the Celiac Disease Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, said in a prepared statement.
“This work offers great promise for patients who, in the near future, may have a treatment that improves upon dietary restrictions alone,” Leffler added.
A second study concluded that the criteria for diagnosing celiac disease may be too stringent, meaning some patients go undiagnosed and, therefore, untreated. Current diagnostic criteria for celiac disease include small intestinal muscosal membrane villus atrophy and inflammation.
This study included 145 people suspected of having celiac disease. Of those, 71 were found to be endomysial antibody positive. Of those 71, 48 met the current criteria for celiac disease diagnosis. The other 23 patients were randomly divided into two groups — one group ate a regular diet, while the other ate a gluten-free diet. They were re-assessed after one year.
The patients on the gluten-free diet were asymptomatic and had no endomysial antibodies or small intestine mucosal inflammation. The patients on the regular diet continued to have symptoms, were endomysial antibody positive, and had further deterioration of the small intestine membrane, inflammation and gluten-induced lesions in the bowel.
The patients on the regular diet decided to eliminate gluten from their diet and, over time, became symptom-free, endomysial antibody-free, and showed healing of the mucosal membrane.
To read the rest of the article, click over to the Washington Post’s website.
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