A new study published in Gastroenterology has revealed new findings that could help lead to a cure for celiac disease. According to the researchers behind the study, the breakthrough could indeed lead to the creation of new celiac treatment options.
The real kicker here is that the team has now identified how and where the body’s response to gluten begins. Based on the study, certain cells within the body seem to play a much bigger role in that than scientists previously thought.
The hope is that by learning exactly where the gluten response begins, the researchers can start working on a cure for celiac disease—an autoimmune disorder that causes the immune response to launch an attack against harmless molecules, causing damage to the body. In celiac disease’s case, the trigger is gluten, a protein found in various grains.
Consuming gluten with celiac disease can lead to some very unpleasant side effects, and it means having to live on a very strict diet that you never deviate from. However, by finding where the gluten response begins, researchers may be able to create a cure for gluten sensitivity, thus cutting off the trigger response for patients with celiac disease.
The cells that they discovered play a bigger part in the entire process at called epithelial cells. These cells line the inner lining of the upper intestine, and they respond to gluten by triggering the release of CD4+ T cells. These cells then trigger celiac symptoms. So, finding a way to stop this triggering could cure celiac disease.
Of course, there is still a very long way to go to find a proper cure for the disorder. But, researchers are now much closer than they were before. While many with the disease rely on gluten-free diets, those diets aren’t always as gluten-free as they claim and can still lead to some terrible symptoms.
