Celiac Disease Vaccine Shows Promising Results in Phase I Trial - Science Daily (press release)

[Scott Adams]

Open Original Shared Link Science Daily (press release) ScienceDaily (May 8, 2011) — The world's first potential vaccine for celiac disease has shown promising results for treating celiac disease in a Phase I clinical trial and is expected to move to Phase II trials within the next year. ... Open Original Shared Link

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[GlutenFreeManna]

I'm having difficulty understanding this--how can they make a vaccine when Celiac is not caused by a virus? Also will this help those that already have active celiac or only possibly prevent it from presenting in those with the most common genes? If it works, will they withhold it from people that are not formally diagnosed? And what are the risks? I think I will stick with just eating a mostly whole food gluten-free diet instead....

[AgainstTheGrainIdaho]

I'm having difficulty understanding this--how can they make a vaccine when Celiac is not caused by a virus? Also will this help those that already have active celiac or only possibly prevent it from presenting in those with the most common genes? If it works, will they withhold it from people that are not formally diagnosed? And what are the risks? I think I will stick with just eating a mostly whole food gluten-free diet instead....

Makes you wonder huh? Kind of like the vaccine for cervical cancer? Hmmm....Who knows? I know they are trying things for diabetes too though. Weird. Don't get it. Would it really work? I guess we'll see.

[ravenwoodglass]

Makes you wonder huh? Kind of like the vaccine for cervical cancer? Hmmm....Who knows? I know they are trying things for diabetes too though. Weird. Don't get it. Would it really work? I guess we'll see.

It does make one wonder. The vaccine for cervical cancer is a vaccine for the HPV virus. Or rather for a couple of the strains of the HPV as there are more than just one. It is thought that the HPV virus is a contributing factor in the development of cervical cancer. It is however not the only cause of cervical cancer and selling it as a cancer 'vaccine' is IMHO kind of dishonest use by big pharma of a scare factor to sell more of the vaccine.

Since celiac is not a virus I also wonder how they are going to develop a vaccine for it and if they do what will be the side effects. It seems to me that money would be better spent in trying to develop more sensitive tests for celiac and educational programs for doctors and the general population. It is Celiac Disease Awareness Month, or is it? I know I haven't seen any news blurbs about it.

[Kate79]

It sounds to me to be similar to those de-sensitizing trials they do with some peanut allergy sufferers. They give the patient a minute amount of peanut, and gradually up the dosage until the body is used to it and more and more can be tolerated. With this, it sounds like they've found a way to gradually de-sensitize patients to gluten.

From the article, I wonder whether people would have to do these shots all the time? It mentions a once-weekly shot for three weeks... If that's the case, staying gluten free might be preferable! Also - it only mentions that it'll work for 90% of DQ2 people - nothing about DQ8 markers or those who are 'just' gluten intolerant.

[GlutenFreeManna]

It sounds to me to be similar to those de-sensitizing trials they do with some peanut allergy sufferers. They give the patient a minute amount of peanut, and gradually up the dosage until the body is used to it and more and more can be tolerated. With this, it sounds like they've found a way to gradually de-sensitize patients to gluten.

From the article, I wonder whether people would have to do these shots all the time? It mentions a once-weekly shot for three weeks... If that's the case, staying gluten free might be preferable! Also - it only mentions that it'll work for 90% of DQ2 people - nothing about DQ8 markers or those who are 'just' gluten intolerant.

Not to mention that even if they successfully reintroduce gluten without negative reactions this study has no way of predicting the long term effects. Drs used to think that kids outgrew celiac disease, now they know differently and for the kids that were told they outgrew it and then later had worse symptoms the consequences to their heatth could be great if they don't realize they need to go gluten free again. IMO, eating gltuen without any short-term consequences is not worth the risk of the long term developments like cancer.

[Mack the Knife]

Here are some more articles about the research:

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

[Roda]

Even if it does work it wouldn't help me with my avenin sensitivity...

"In our Phase I trial, we saw a Nexvax2®-specific T-cell response that confirms the desired bioactivity in HLA-DQ2 genotype patients," Dr Anderson said. "We expect the vaccine to enter Phase II trials within the next 10 months, and hope to demonstrate a dramatic reduction in the body's rejection of dietary gluten so patients can resume a normal diet and return to good health."

I really didn't like the last sentence. Gluten free diet can in most cases return people to good health also. It also stated that it is to have a reduction in reactions. So does that mean on some level there is autoimmunity still going on? I don't miss gluten filled food that bad.

[cahill]

It seems to me that money would be better spent in trying to develop more sensitive tests for celiac and educational programs for doctors and the general population. It is Celiac Disease Awareness Month, or is it? I know I haven't seen any news blurbs about it.

I agree but then there would not be any money in it for the pharmaceutical companys would there.

The treatment for celiacs is a gluten free diet,the pharmaceutical companies can not make money off of that so, IMHO, celiacs does NOT get their support(money for research,better testing ,awareness campaigns,ect... ), instead they opt for something they can make money off of ( a vaccine )instead of what is in the best interest of the general population (awareness,better testing,information )

[Pac]

I really didn't like the last sentence. Gluten free diet can in most cases return people to good health also. It also stated that it is to have a reduction in reactions. So does that mean on some level there is autoimmunity still going on? I don't miss gluten filled food that bad.

I don't like the last sentence either.

As for why they are developing the vaccine, they make that quite clear on their website:

"It has been predicted that 50-60% of affected patients will be diagnosed in developed countries by 2019, creating a potential pharmaceutical market worth US$8 billion."

[etta694]

"The drug triggers the death of the cells that cause the damaging immune response,'' he said. ''By doing that you switch the immune reaction from a damaging one to a tolerant one.''"

I also wonder what else this affects if cells which are a normal part of our immune response are killed. What else are these cells responsible for (long term)? Its like taking out the squeaky hinge.. and then finding out the door falls off.

[Edo]

I agree with those who are skeptical. The vaccine wouldn't be for me anyway because I'm not DQ2. But either way, knowing what I now know about nutrition and our food system, even if I could eat gluten and processed foods and everything else, I still wouldn't. Even if they can guarantee zero autoimmune response and no other consequences from the vaccine, that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of other health consequences to eating a "normal" diet again. I think of celiac as forcing me back to a healthy, natural human diet, and away from the food system that is making people sick, celiac or otherwise. The vaccine is just feeding into the mentality that we should be fitted to the system, instead of the system being fitted to us. It makes a lot of dollars, but not a lot of sense.

[Mack the Knife]

These are some of the new stories thta have appeared in Australia leading up to this latest announcement:

[Mack the Knife]

And these just got posted up on Youtube: