Pipeline & Disease Focus

Celiac Disease

CD is an immune-mediated disease of the gut that is triggered by the consumption of gluten-containing food in individuals that express specific genes. The gluten peptides are partially digested and presented by specific set of cells to cells of the immune system which then initiate the autoimmune process. Accordingly, the only current treatment for CD is the complete elimination of gluten from the patient痴 diet. In addition, CD patients need to keep taking anti-inflammatory medication in order to subside the symptoms but this medication does not contribute to curing the disease.

The pathology of CD is mainly caused by extensive damage to the intestinal mucosa. The majority of the damage appears to be caused by activated CD8 T cells that have infiltrated to the intestinal lamina propria. Curiously, these CD8 T cells, unlike the gluten-specific CD4 T cells, are not restricted by gluten peptides, but appear to be activated through an activating NK-receptor, the NKG2D system. Thus it appears that the pathology of CD is not directly caused by antigen-mediated activation of CD4 T cells, suggesting that a different therapeutic strategy, besides restricting gluten intake, could be implemented to suppress the disorder.

Accumulating evidence suggests a critical role for a group of gc cytokines (IL-15 and IL-21) in CD. A derivative of BNZ-g is designed to selectively block the functions of these two cytokines. In vitro studies are underway to assess the specificity of this peptide in vitro.

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