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Celiac.com 08/11/2017 - We are very pleased to provide an exciting update on our progress on bringing our therapeutic drug "latiglutenase" and our diagnostic disease management tool "CypCel" to market for patients suffering with celiac disease. ImmunogenX is a clinical-stage company founded by dedicated scientists committed to bettering the lives of celiac disease patients. We are focused on celiac disease therapy, disease management and food safety. We acquired the assets of Alvine Pharmaceuticals in 2016 and are marching ahead with great confidence and enthusiasm and plan to start our final Phase 2 trial for latiglutenase later this year. Latiglutenase is a natural product, a mixture of two gluten-specific enzymes that break down gluten in the stomach. A patient would take the therapy orally while maintaining a strict gluten-free diet. The intent of the therapy is to combat low levels of gluten that persist in the food chain, as well as in situations where ingestion of gluten is unavoidable due to cross contamination, such as at restaurants. The recent latiglutenase Phase 2b trial (CeliAction) conducted by Alvine and AbbVie unfortunately did not meet their primary goal of demonstrating clinically significant intestinal healing. The secondary goal of symptom reduction did show evidence of success in a subclass of celiac disease patients. ImmunogenX, following the acquisition of the Alvine assets, completed a post hoc data analysis from this trial. Statistically and clinically significant symptom improvement was shown for abdominal pain, bloating, tiredness, and constipation for patients who had persistent positive readings in key antibody levels (i.e., seropositive). These exciting results were highlighted at the Digestive Disease Week meeting in May 2017 and are now published in Digestive Diseases and Sciences. We will travel to India in September to present our research at ICDS 2017 (International Celiac Disease Symposium). If the primary endpoint of the CeliAction trial had been focused on reducing symptoms of gluten exposure, then that trial could rightfully have been called a success. Therefore, as a next step, ImmunogenX will be to go back into the clinic and reconfirm these positive results, demonstrating symptom improvement, in our next phase 2 trial. This will enable the company to transition to a pivotal trial for FDA registration. We attended another FDA Type C meeting in May 2017, which reinforced the continuing positive support from the agency regarding our symptom label, our Phase 2/3 trial strategy and our celiac disease symptom diary (CDSD) patient reported outcome (PRO) instrument. It is very gratifying to have such documented support from the FDA for our mission. Please visit our website www.immunogenx.com for updates on our progress and feel free to contact us with any questions (info@immunogenx.com).

Celiac.com 08/28/2013 - Researchers at Washington State University are 'very close' to developing celiac-safe wheat strains, says lead project researcher Diter von Wettstein. Rich Koenig, associate dean and director of WSU Extension, says the wheat project involves removing the gluten material that causes the adverse reaction in people who have celiac disease. Von Wettstein says that his team has developed wheat hybrids that have 76.4 percent less gluten proteins than conventional strains, and that the next step is to eliminate the remaining percentage. Von Wettstein is working two distinct angles on this project. The first approach uses genetic modification, while the seconds does not. He acknowledges that doing it without genetic modification "would be better…But in the end, if the only way to do this is through genetic modification of wheat, it could still be a major advancement for people who suffer from that disease." The projects may still take a while as von Wettstein works to identify, selectively silence and remove the responsible genes. One caveat is that even if the project is successful, the wheat may not produce flour suitable for baking, though Koenig says that producing wheat suitable for people with celiac disease would be, nonetheless, an "important subsection of wheat production" Funding for von Wettstein's research is coming from The National Institutes of Health and Washington State's Life Science Discovery Fund.

Celiac.com 05/30/2012 - From what we understand about celiac disease, both genetic and environmental factors play a part in its development: eople with certain genetic dispositions are more likely to develop it, but studies of twins at high risk of developing celiac disease have shown that in 25% of cases, only one of the twins will develop the disease. This indicates an environmental effect, and with more research it might be possible to discover what these environmental factors are so that parents with celiac disease can take steps to prevent their children from developing the disease themselves. Breast-feeding has already demonstrated some protective effect on infants at risk of developing celiac disease, but it is still unclear how the modulation of intestinal bacteria affects the formation of the disease. Understanding the role various strains of intestinal bacteria play in the intestine could be the key to understanding why breast-feeding helps prevent celiac disease, and perhaps why celiac disease develops at all. In the present study, 75 newborns with at least one first degree relative with celiac disease were broken into breast-feeding, formula-feeding groups, high (7-28%) and low (less than 1%) genetic risk groups, then tested at 7 days, 1 month and 4 months for prevalence and diversity of intestinal bacteria. Infants at high risk of developing celiac disease had more Bacteroides vulgatus, regardless of feeding methods while infants at low risk of developing celiac disease had more Bacteroides ovatus, Bacteroides plebeius and Bacteroides uniformis. Formula-fed infants had more Bacteroides intestinalis, Bacteroides caccae and Bacteroides plebeius, though prevalence depended on the testing stage. The most striking finding of the experiment seems to indicate that both low genetic risk of celiac disease development and breast-feeding are positively correlated with the prevalence of Bacteroides uniformis in the intestines. This might explain why breast-feeding can help protect against development of the disease, by introducing more Bacteroides uniformis into the infant's intestinal bacteria community. The implications of this research are still unclear, but a follow-up study on these infants is intended. Further research may explain how the prevalence of these bacteria in the intestine actually affects the development of celiac disease in infants. Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21642397