Can Scientists Predict Who Will Develop Celiac Disease?
Celiac disease is an auto-immune disease that is triggered by the ingestion of gluten.
As much as 1% of the population has celiac disease and roughly 30-40% of the population carry the genetics that predispose them to it. While you can’t have celiac disease without the genetic predisposition, your genes don’t automatically mean you will end up with celiac disease either. Only an estimated 3% of those with ‘celiac genes’ will end up with celiac disease. This suggests that other factors, such as the intestinal microbiota, may also contribute to the development of celiac disease, which was exactly what these recent researchers explored!
Using children from the prospective cohort study for celiac disease, the Celiac Disease Genomic, Environmental, Microbiome, and Metabolomic study, the researchers found significant changes in the intestinal microbes, pathways and metabolites as early as 18 months before disease onset. This was much earlier than expected. In other words, scientists may be able to predict who will develop celiac disease!
This approach will help researchers develop strategies for the diagnosis and treatment of a variety of conditions in which the microbiome could play a pathogenic role - amazing!!
The Celiac Disease Genomic, Environmental, Microbiome, and Metabolomic study, has been collecting extensive blood and faecal samples and environmental data on approximately 500 infants in the United States, Italy and Spain who have first-degree relatives with celiac disease and therefore are at a high risk of developing celiac disease since 2014.
To learn more about celiac disease, checkout these other blog posts:
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