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Argentinian Coeliacs Work to Change the Law

Argentinian coeliacs have organized in hopes of obtaining a law to defend "the quality of life and the rights of the people" affected by coeliac disease in their country. The first draft of the bill was introduced in June, 2007 and asks that all products for human consumption be labeled "suitable for coeliac" or "not for coeliac" as appropriate. It also asks that coeliac disease be incorporated in the Compulsory Health Plan and that free diagnostic tests be provided to those with no health coverage. It would require that a Register of Consumer Products (for celiacs) be developed and updated quarterly and that food manufacturers perform tests to demonstrate the absence of gluten in their products. Inaccurate or unreliable reports would be considered adulteration of a food substance and could be punishable by fines or "disqualifications". In addition, the sales of gluten free products in bus terminals and other places where large numbers of people congregate would be mandatory. Finally, educations campaigns would target public and private schools, including teachers, parents and students.

In November 2007, the Health Ministry signed the National Coeliac Program which will produce guidelines for diagnosis and treatment, organize a network of services in hospitals and health centers focused on the problem and strengthen the capacity of laboratories to verify that products are free of gluten.

On May 5, 2008 Argentinian coelics were "preparing to embrace" their National Parliament in Buenos Aires City.

Parallels Between Pathogens and Gluten Peptides in Celiac Disease

Michael T. Bethune, Chaitan Khosla
Department of Biochemistry at Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America.

Pathogens are exogenous agents capable of causing disease in susceptible organisms. In celiac sprue, a disease triggered by partially hydrolyzed gluten peptides in the small intestine, the offending immunotoxins cannot replicate, but otherwise have many hallmarks of classical pathogens. First, dietary gluten and its peptide metabolites are ubiquitous components of the modern diet, yet only a small, genetically susceptible fraction of the human population contracts celiac sprue. Second, immunotoxic gluten peptides have certain unusual structural features that allow them to survive the harsh proteolytic conditions of the gastrointestinal tract and thereby interact extensively with the mucosal lining of the small intestine. Third, they invade across epithelial barriers intact to access the underlying gut-associated lymphoid tissue. Fourth, they possess recognition sequences for selective modification by an endogenous enzyme, transglutaminase 2, allowing for in situ activation to a more immunotoxic form via host subversion. Fifth, they precipitate a T cell-mediated immune reaction comprising both innate and adaptive responses that causes chronic inflammation of the small intestine. Sixth, complete elimination of immunotoxic gluten peptides from the celiac diet results in remission, whereas reintroduction of gluten in the diet causes relapse. Therefore, in analogy with antibiotics, orally administered proteases that reduce the host's exposure to the immunotoxin by accelerating gluten peptide destruction have considerable therapeutic potential. Last but not least, notwithstanding the power of in vitro methods to reconstitute the essence of the immune response to gluten in a celiac patient, animal models for the disease, while elusive, are likely to yield fundamentally new systems-level insights.

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New Pan-European Collaboration Launched Into the Diagnosis and Control of Coeliac Disease

12 million Euros, equivalent to nearly 9.5 million pounds has been invested by the European Commission into a new pan-European partnership which will design an advanced diagnostic tool for the detection and control of coeliac disease, the most under-diagnosed common chronic condition in the UK today.

The collaborative project, entitled Coeliac Disease Management Monitoring Diagnosis using Biosensors and Integrated Chip Systems (CD-MEDICS), will unite technologies to allow point of care diagnostics, combined with embedded communication technologies to directly interface with hospital information systems. It is expected that the development of the technologies involved and their combination in a single product represent a significant advance in diagnostic technology that has the potential to be applied to the detection of a range of other conditions such, insulin dependent diabetes mellitus or rheumatoid arthritis.

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