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Celiac disease is a disorder in which eating gluten triggers an immune response in the body, causing inflammation and damage to the small intestine. Celiac disease affects  up to 1% of the world’s population.

Gluten is a type of protein found in grains including wheat, barley, spelt and rye. People with the disease can’t tolerate all those yummy cakes, bread, pasta, cookies or any foods with gluten in them.

Celiac disease is a serious condition that can cause a host of negative symptoms, including digestive issues and nutritional deficiencies. Celiac disease is associated with a lot of unpleasant and often painful symptoms such as diarrhea, bloating, gas, fatigue, weight loss, iron deficiency anemia (due to impairment in absorption of nutrients), constipation and dermatitis herpetiformis, a type of itchy, blistering skin rash that can occur on the elbows, knees or buttocks.

There is no cure for celiac disease other than abstaining from gluten altogether. However, a new research seems to offer some hope to the sufferers of celiac disease. A phase 2 human trials from Northwestern University, Chicago, using a novel nanoparticle technology was found to significantly induce an immune tolerance to gluten in celiac subjects after just two intravenous treatments.

This treatment is quite ingenious. It involves encapsulating a specific allergen inside a biodegradable nanoparticle. The immune system is “tricked ” by the nanoparticle by responding harmlessly and just treating it like safe debris, and sending an immune cell called a macrophage to clean it up. Macrophages act as the body’s vacuum-cleaner cells, as they clear foreign substances from the body. The macrophages then present the allergen or antigen to the immune system in a way that says, ‘No worries, this belongs here its harmless’. The immune system then shuts off its attack on the allergen.

In theory, this technology could potentially be utilized to treat any number of autoimmune diseases triggered by specific known antigens, but this first exploration for the technology has focused on celiac disease.

In this trial involves the nanoparticle called COUR nanoparticle, CNP-101 was loaded with a molecule called gliadin, an essential protein in gluten known to trigger inflammatory responses in celiac disease patients. This Phase 2 trial is small, involving only 34 patients, but it offers the first evidence of efficacy in human subjects. Thetreatment involves two intravenous administrations of the nanoparticles, one week apart. Seven days after the second treatment the subjects were challenged with gluten. Interestingly, majority of the subjects tolerated the gluten challenge following the nanoparticle CNP-101 treatment, showing an impressive 90 percent reduction in inflammatory markers compared to an untreated control group.

The treatment has been granted a Fast Track designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, allowing it to expediently move through Phase 2 and 3 human trials.

Most autoimmune diseases are currently treated with immune suppressants, which at best lessen symptoms, but degrade the immune response and carry the potential for toxic side-effects. CNP-101 does not work by suppressing the immune system, but by preventing the inflammatory response, and thus reversing the course of the autoimmune disease . While nanoparticle technology is first being tested for gluten and celiac disease if successful, it will be interesting to see if it could also be used to treat other auto immune disorders like type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, peanut and other allergies, asthma etc.