Ast Enzymes, Gluten Relief?

[lc1333]

so, my daughter received a free sample of this AST Enzymes Gluten Relief, that when take 5-10 minutes before a meal is supposed to somehow keep the gluten from irritating the system...really??? is it really that simple??? has anybody tried this stuff?? does it work???

i have diagnosed celiac, but she didn't want to wait for the testing so she just quit eating gluten and it fixed her symptoms too...

thanks

[shadowicewolf]

I call bullpoo-y on that claim. There is nothing as of right now that can block the body's autoimmune system response to gluten.

[Madagascar]

This morning i registered on Medscape and looked for articles related to celiac disease. I wonder if the AST Enzyme is somehow related to this article, dated 4/3/2012. There's quite a bit more to the article which was called "Coeliac Disease: New Approaches to Therapy." anyone can register there if you're interested in reading more. Open Original Shared Link

Permeability Modulation

In healthy individuals, tight junctions between the epithelial cells protect and control the exposure of submucosal tissues to the macromolecules that may induce a toxic effect by passing through the intestinal barriers. They are also an important component of the cell-to-cell signalling pathways.^[57] It has been shown that patients with active coeliac disease have a defect in the epithelial barriers that leads to increased permeability and possibly passage of immunodominant gluten peptides and likely other immunostimulatory luminal antigens, especially bacterial components. ^[58] These changes in the mucosal permeability have been hypothesised to be an early pathogenic event in the development of coeliac disease by exposing the immune system of susceptible individuals to the immunostimulatory gluten peptides. ^[59] Previous studies have identified the human protein Zonulin, a precursor of prehaptoglobin-2, as a regulator of epithelial permeability highly expressed in coeliac diseases and a likely contributor to its pathology. ^{[60, 61]} This protein is similar in effect to that of Zonula Occludens Toxin (ZOT) expressed by vibrio cholerae, which impairs epithelial tight junctions integrity. ^[62] A recent study has shown that gliadin binds to the chemokine receptor CXCR3 releasing Zonulin and subsequently increasing the intestinal permeability via the My-D88 dependent pathway.^[63] An octapeptide derived from ZOT (AT-1001) that antagonises Zonulin action via receptor blockade and therefore prevents mucosal impairment has been generated.^[64] As a part of Phase I clinical trial, the safety and efficacy of this orally administrated medication was investigated in a randomised controlled trial. ^[65] In this study, 14 patients with coeliac disease challenged by a single dose of gluten while receiving AT-1001 for three consecutive days were compared with seven patients in the placebo group. Intestinal permeability was measured in the two groups by calculating fractional excretions of lactulose and mannitol to evaluate the efficacy of the treatment. Interestingly, intestinal permeability remained intact after gluten challenge in the subjects who received the treatment, while adverse effects, gastrointestinal symptoms and inflammatory markers were not observed to be more frequent when compared with the placebo group. Based on these observations, use of Zonulin antagonists, which has recently completed phase IIb of clinical trial, presents a complementary therapeutic approach that is undergoing further clinical trials (Figure 1b).