Promising Study Shows Potential for New Celiac Disease Treatment
In a groundbreaking new study, researchers have adapted an experimental cancer treatment to potentially control celiac disease.
The innovative method effectively suppressed the autoimmune reaction in the gut of mice, indicating that this treatment could revolutionize therapy for humans with celiac disease in the future.
For individuals living with celiac disease, even the smallest exposure to gluten can trigger severe intestinal symptoms. The immune system mistakenly identifies the protein as a threat, launching an attack that leads to discomfort, diarrhea, and other unpleasant consequences.
A team of scientists at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland spearheaded a new immunotherapy approach that appears to mitigate this overactive immune response in mice.
The researchers engineered regulatory T cells (Tregs), a type of immune cell that suppresses the activity of effector T cells responsible for symptoms. When mice that had not received the engineered Tregs were fed gluten, the effector T cells became activated in the intestines in preparation for an immune response. However, in mice infused with the engineered Tregs, the effector T cells did not react to the gluten and did not migrate to the gut.
This technique bears resemblance to a novel cancer treatment known as Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, wherein immune cells are modified outside the body to target specific cancer cells before being reintroduced to enhance the immune response.
While early results of CAR T cell therapy have shown promise in certain cancer types, using immunotherapy for celiac disease involves dampening immune responses rather than stimulating them, presenting a unique challenge.
In this study, mice were genetically modified to possess the HLA-DQ2.5 variation commonly found in human celiac patients. The researchers developed effector T cells that reacted to gluten and Tregs that countered these effector cells, which were then administered to the mice.
Remarkably, the treated mice not only showed protection against the gluten antigen targeted by their effector T cells but also exhibited suppressed immune responses against a similar but distinct gluten antigen.
While the prospect of a definitive cure remains distant, this study marks a significant step towards potential new treatments for celiac disease. Patients could potentially be liberated from the constant vigilance over food labels and menus, as well as the consequences of inadvertent gluten exposure.
Published in Science Translational Medicine, this research sets the stage for further investigations to address limitations and refine the approach for future human trials.
