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Celiac disease is a condition in which people cannot consume gluten because it would trigger an immune reaction. Currently, there is no known cure for this disease, therefore, participating in these trials may help in the development of treatments and medications.
Celiac Disease
Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune condition triggered by gluten and related prolamins (both proteins found in certain foods such as cereals), occurs in genetically susceptible individuals (due to genetic inheritance), and is characterized by the presence of a combination of gluten-dependent clinical manifestations and genetic factors.
Incidence
According to the Spanish Federation of Coeliac Associations, 75% of the cases are undiagnosed because for years CD has been related to its classic form of clinical presentation. However, the recognition of other atypical forms of manifestation, such as oligosymptomatic and asymptomatic, combined with the greater and better use of available complementary tests, has made it possible to reveal the existence of different types of CD:
Symptomatic: Symptoms are very diverse, but all patients will show serology, histology and genetic tests compatible with CD.
Subclinical: In this case there will be no symptoms or signs, although the rest of the diagnostic tests will be positive.
Latent: These are patients who, at a given time, have no symptoms and the intestinal mucosa is normal when consuming gluten. There are two variants:
Type A: They were diagnosed with CD during their childhood and recovered completely after the start of the gluten-free diet, remaining in a subclinical state with normal diet.
Type B: In this case, a previous study showed that the intestinal mucosa was normal, but they subsequently developed the disease.
Potential: These individuals have never presented a biopsy compatible with CD but, like the previous groups, have a genetic predisposition determined by HLA-DQ2/DQ8 positivity. Although serology may be negative, they have an increased number of intraepithelial lymphocytes. The average probability of developing active CD is 13% and latent CD is 50%.
Signs and symptoms
The most common symptoms include: weight loss, loss of appetite, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal distension, loss of muscle mass, growth retardation, character alterations (irritability, apathy, introversion, sadness), abdominal pain, meteorism, iron-refractory iron deficiency anemia. (Source: Spanish Federation of Coeliac Associations).
However, in both children and adults, symptoms may be atypical or absent, making diagnosis difficult.
Treatment
Currently there is no pharmacological
treatment for celiac disease. The main therapeutic alternative is to have a completely gluten-free diet to alleviate discomfort and complications that arise from the consumption of gluten (which is a protein found naturally in wheat, barley and rye that triggers a reaction if you have this disease).
Trial for Celiac Disease
Currently, there is no known cure for the disease, therefore participating in these trials can help in the development of treatments and medications. If you are over 22 years old and have a medical diagnosis of the disease, do not hesitate to contact us.
You can take a look at our available studies: