Vaccine for celiac disease

[Guest guest]

Australian Researchers Begin Work on a Vaccine for Celiac

Disease

Celiac.com

10/29/2002 - Dr , Research Fellow at the Nuffield Department

of Medicine at the University of Oxford (now based at the Royal Melbourne

Hospital in Australia), and colleagues recently announced their intent to

begin work on a vaccine that could cure celiac disease. The Australian

team’s work will be based on Dr. ’s earlier groundbreaking Oxford

research that identified the specific set of protein sequences in gluten

that cause damage to the guts of those with celiac disease (see:

Nature Medicine 6, 337 - 342 - 01 Mar 2000). In addition to finding a

possible cure for celiac disease the team’s research could open the door

for a specific diagnostic test for the disease, new treatment and

prevention strategies, and even the possibility of producing grains that do

not contain the harmful sequences. Dr. ’s future research will

focused on proving that a specific “toxic peptide” can be used to

desensitize or induce tolerance in people with celiac disease, and any

vaccine would likely be the “toxic peptide” itself or a modified form of

it.

The Australian team

also announced their agreement for the commercialization of new celiac

disease technology developed by the University of Oxford. BTG and Isis will

develop diagnostic tests and treatments for gluten intolerance. BTG is a

London-based technology transfer company which has bought the rights to the

team’s discovery, and Isis Innovation Ltd, is Oxford University's

wholly-owned technology transfer company that was established in 1988 and

is a world leader in university technology transfer. Under the terms of the

Isis agreement, BTG will have exclusive access to the University's

technology for use in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of celiac

disease. The technology is based on identification of the particular

epitopes that cause priming of the immune system in celiac disease. BTG

will underwrite all costs associated with the development and

commercialization of the technology, and will share any revenue from

commercialization of the technology with Isis and the University.