Nelson Vergel
Founder, ExcelMale.com
Scientists have known for a while that genetics predisposes some people to celiac. About 30 percent of Americans carry the genes that make them more susceptible to the disease. And yet, only about one percent of Americans have celiac.
Researchers wondered why not everyone with the risk genes gets the disease.
The answer is likely complicated, but one theory has emerged. Perhaps a "viral infection can serve as a trigger to celiac," explains Dr. Terence Dermody, who chairs the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh, and is an author of the new study published in Science.
He and a team of collaborators, led by Bana Jabri of the University of Chicago, decided to test this in experimental mice. They had been studying reovirus – a common virus that infects most Americans beginning in childhood, yet isn't considered dangerous. The researchers genetically engineered the mice to be more susceptible to celiac disease. Then they exposed mice to reovirus. At the same time they also fed gluten to the mice.
It turns out their hunch had been right. The mice developed "an immunological response against gluten that mimics the features of humans with celiac disease," Dermody says. The symptoms of celiac disease include diarrhea and other signs of gastrointestinal distress.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt...e-villain-could-a-common-virus-be-the-trigger
Researchers wondered why not everyone with the risk genes gets the disease.
The answer is likely complicated, but one theory has emerged. Perhaps a "viral infection can serve as a trigger to celiac," explains Dr. Terence Dermody, who chairs the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh, and is an author of the new study published in Science.
He and a team of collaborators, led by Bana Jabri of the University of Chicago, decided to test this in experimental mice. They had been studying reovirus – a common virus that infects most Americans beginning in childhood, yet isn't considered dangerous. The researchers genetically engineered the mice to be more susceptible to celiac disease. Then they exposed mice to reovirus. At the same time they also fed gluten to the mice.
It turns out their hunch had been right. The mice developed "an immunological response against gluten that mimics the features of humans with celiac disease," Dermody says. The symptoms of celiac disease include diarrhea and other signs of gastrointestinal distress.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt...e-villain-could-a-common-virus-be-the-trigger
