Infection with a seemingly harmless virus may determine the development of celiac disease, i.e. gluten sensitivity, researchers from the University of Chicago have concluded. Will the discovery lead to the development of a vaccine against this disease?
Celiac disease, one of the most common diseases of the gastrointestinal tract among Europeans, is an autoimmune disease. Until now, it was believed that the disease was genetic, because the vast majority of patients have one of the two types of the HLA-DQ gene – HLA-DQ2 or HLA-DQ8.
However, recent reports suggest that viral infections may be responsible for the onset of the disease, including those caused by adenoviruses (typically causing symptoms of colds), rotaviruses (responsible for diarrhea) and even hepatitis C virus (HCV).
Their experiment on mice showed that in these rodents gluten intolerance can be caused by infecting them with a harmless T1L reovirus.
Animals infected with the T1L virus and fed with food containing gliadin (a component of gluten) developed 2–3 times more anti-gliadin antibodies compared to mice that were not infected with this pathogen. Their organisms also produced 2–4 times more IRF1 protein, which stimulates the production of interferon (very high concentrations of IRF1 are found in the intestinal villi of children with celiac disease).
– Our study is the first to unequivocally confirm that infection with the virus can cause loss of tolerance to food antigen. In this case, the reovirus changed the way the immune system “perceives” gluten. The previously tolerated component became a signal to start an inflammatory reaction – explains Prof. Bana Jabri, the researcher.
In her opinion, the test results may explain why about 3% of people suffer from celiac disease. Americans, while the genetic predisposition to develop the disease has up to 40 percent. inhabitants of this country. Most of the predisposed may simply not have encountered the virus.
If the results obtained in mice are confirmed in humans, scientists may be able to develop new treatments for celiac disease. The team of prof. Jabri has already started preliminary work on a vaccine against the disease.