{"id":243,"date":"2018-02-05T11:26:58","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T10:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/?p=243"},"modified":"2018-02-05T11:27:21","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T10:27:21","slug":"when-gluten-is-the-villain-could-a-common-virus-be-the-trigger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/britishdailynews.co.uk\/?p=243","title":{"rendered":"When Gluten Is The Villain, Could A Common Virus Be The Trigger?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new study raises a novel idea about what might trigger celiac disease, a condition that makes patients unable to tolerate foods containing gluten.
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The study suggests that a common virus may be to blame.<\/p>\n

For people with celiac disease, gluten can wreak havoc on their digestive systems. Their immune systems mistake gluten as a dangerous substance.<\/p>\n

Scientists have known for a while that genetics predisposes some people to celiac. About 30 percent of Americans carry the genes that make them more susceptible to the disease. And yet, only about\u00a0one percent of Americans have celiac.<\/a><\/p>\n

Researchers wondered why not everyone with the risk genes gets the disease.<\/p>\n

The answer is likely complicated, but one theory has emerged. Perhaps a \u201cviral infection can serve as a trigger to celiac,\u201d explains Dr.\u00a0Terence Dermody,<\/a>\u00a0who chairs the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh, and is an author of\u00a0the new study<\/a>\u00a0published in\u00a0Science<\/em>.<\/p>\n

He and a team of collaborators, led by Bana Jabri of the University of Chicago, decided to test this in experimental mice. They had been studying reovirus \u2013 a common virus that infects most Americans beginning in childhood, yet isn\u2019t considered dangerous. The researchers genetically engineered the mice to be more susceptible to celiac disease. Then they exposed mice to reovirus. At the same time they also fed gluten to the mice.<\/p>\n