Here, IMO, Is The Biggest Medical Breakthrough In Decades

[tex]

Hi All,

Finally, the medical community is beginning to open their eyes, and acknowlege the obvious, about celiac disease.

Patients who are diagnosed with "potential" celiac disease appear metabolically similar to those who actually have the disease, researchers say.

Among 29 "potential" patients, 24 were classified as having the disease on metabonomic analysis, Ivano Bertini, MD, of the University of Florence in Italy, and colleagues reported in the Journal of Proteome Research.

"Our results demonstrate that metabolic alterations may precede the development of small intestinal villous atrophy and provide a further rationale for early institution of a gluten-free diet," they wrote.

The data suggest that "potential celiac disease subjects are, indeed, not potential at all. They ... appear metabolically similar to overt celiac disease ... without any histological evidence of intestinal damage."

If this hypothesis holds, the researchers wrote, "the core result from our investigation would be that metabolomics can detect celiac disease also when its clinical manifestation is not fully evident."

They also emphasized the importance of a gluten-free diet in these potential patients.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Gastroenter ... logy/23955

Will wonders never cease?

Tex

[Zizzle]

Ha! You beat me to it. We obviously get the same newsletter from ACG. Amazing study!!!

[tex]

That was a close race.

I almost dropped my subscription to that newsletter a month or so ago, when I got bored of reading the same old tired newspaper articles about Jane Doe in Timbucktu showing the world how to live with celiac disease. Once in a while though, they do mention something worthwhile, along with all the routine drivel.

Tex

[Zizzle]

I agree, very few pearls of wisdom in there.

[Rosie]

Very interesting, Tex. Here is a quote from the abstract:

Here we address potential CD patients, defined as subjects who do not have, and have never had, a jejunal biopsy consistent with clear CD, and yet have immunological abnormalities similar to those found in celiac patients.

So it appears that the researchers defined "potential CD" as having an HLA genetic marker for CD. Depending on the population, the percentage of people with one of those genetic markers can be as high as 40%. Doing the math, if 24 out of 29 (82%) of these people have metabolic markers for CD, that means that about a third of the population could be adversely affected by gluten, but not have classic symptoms. Mind-boggling!


I would love to read the whole article, but have to decide if it's worth $30 to access it.

Rosie

[tex]

Rosie,

That is pretty much what Dr. Fine has been claiming for years, but no one would pay any attention to him, since he's not a member of the "club". Look at the statistics mentioned in this press release from 2006, about his "Tip of the Iceberg" lecture:

http://www.clanthompson.com/res_press.p ... pr&pr_id=1

Tex

[harvest_table]

"Gluten and Natural Killer Cells" ( Forget the antibodies )

http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/ ... odies.html

Have been interested in all conversations about mast cells- what about our natural killer cells? They also may hold a very "early" key in the process and syndrome of many of our problems.

Love from Fergus,

Joanna

[Polly]

Hi Joanna!

Good to hear from you.

This is a great article and is in sync with some of what I have been reading lately. It seems researchers are learning so much about the various cells/components of the immune system.......which may provide lots of answers for us MCers. This article explains a lot - especially for those who don't have gluten antibodies but know they are reacting to gluten. The types/numbers of immune cells are mind-boggling....for instance, the NKs who are the first line of defense and the cells that arrive later and make the antibody (I've read that there are cells in our bodies already programmed to make make 10,000 different specific antibodies, as well as cells that can make any antibody from scratch that is not covered by the 10,000 existing ones).

I have been thinking about the fact that our whole lives are spent trying to fend off foreign invaders, like bacteria, viruses, foreign proteins, etc. We couldn't live a day without intact immune systems. And these "enemies" are indeed clever - the bugs are quick to become resistant to our antibiotics or to develop other mechanisms to survive (Tex, think mycobacteria, specifically the way they have learned to shed their capsule and go into another form to evade detection and treatment). Of course, these bugs don't usually want to kill us, since they are dependent upon us for survival.

Wonderful food for thought! Thanks for sharing.

Love,

Polly

[tex]

Hi Joanna,

It's good to see a post from you. I hope you're feeling fine, and everything is going smoothly in Fergus Falls.

That's a very interesting article. The first thing about it that catches my eye is the fact that the author considers celiac disease to be a form of IBD. So do I. It is marked by inflammation of the small intestine, (enteritis - which involves lymphocytic infiltration), which, by definition, should make it a form of IBD.

Natural killer cells, (NK cells), are a major component of the innate immune system. They kill cells by means of a process that is considered to be "programmed cell death", which causes the target cell to die by a process known as "apoptosis". IOW, they are part of the normal maintenance system that eliminates old or infected cells.

They were named "natural killers" because of the initial notion that they do not require activation in order to kill cells that are missing "self" markers of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I.

Therefore, technically, I would think that NK cells cannot be part of a so-called autoimmune reaction, since their mode of action is apoptosis. IOW, if a cell is not carrying a "self" marker, then it's destruction by an NK cell would be by apoptosis, by definition, and nothing more. Theoretically, at least, NK cells should not "execute" any cells carrying a "self" marker, but maybe there are exceptions to this rule.

MC is claimed, (by those who claim to know), to be primarily a T-cell phenomenon, FWIW.

That said, when you look at what is going on from a "holistic" viewpoint, if NK cells played a major part in MC, then this would certainly explain the lack of high serum levels of antibodies, (as is normally found with MC), in contrast with the high serum levels of antibodies present with fully-developed celiac disease. Maybe NK cell activity comes first, and T-cell reactions come later. This would also explain why celiacs don't show high serum levels of antibodies until the disease is mature.

Thanks for the link.

Love,
Tex