The Continued Journey to Finding a Cure for Celiac Disease

People with celiac disease have finally found themselves with a wider range of food choices that can help maintain their health. Currently there are no other treatments available other than remaining gluten-free. Celiac disease is thought to affect one of 100 people, and many of these individuals still feel an onset of symptoms due to even a small level of contamination.

A glimpse into the future

Research for the celiac disease community has been growing under research groups like the Celiac Disease Center at University of Chicago Medicine. Their main goal is simple— to find a cure. So far, the most promising avenues for their research are the following:

• A pill that when taken before eating a meal that might contain a hint of gluten would make the small intestine permeable to gluten, and hindering its toxicity.
• Taking a pill containing some gluten that would break gluten down to a degree that it becomes non-toxic before it reaches the small intestines.
• A drug that would stifle the inflammatory reaction of the intestine to gluten.
• A vaccine that may restore the body’s tolerance to gluten before the celiac disease has struck.

These avenues have set a goal that has reached many obstacles, and as Daniel A. Leffler from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston has said, “finding the cure was and still is a slow process.” He added that it is a frustrating situation not only for celiac disease but as well as those illnesses that don’t have a cure yet.  

As is widely known, so many procedures and tests have to be done in order to find a cure in the form of a pill, drug, or even vaccine. While research may be held under strict confidentiality, doctors and scientists in charge of the clinical testing have been more than forthcoming about their progress.

Read on to see what researchers are doing to find a cure for celiac disease.