Celiac disease may have something that comes close to being a cure. Larazotide may ease the restrictions of a gluten free diet.
Alba Therapeutics announced further clinical trials of the drug
larazotide acetate, after earlier studies showed promising initial results.
An earlier Phase IIb study looked at 184 adults with celiac disease.
The goal of the trial was to loot at the effect of larazotide on the “leaky gut”, a common symptom of celiac disease.
I know that this sounds very exciting, so lets stop a moment and take a look at what this means.
A degraded small intestine is not the only symptom of celiac disease. Many celiacs have no sign of damage in their gut, but the effects of gluten on someone with celiac disease can impact many other organs in the body.
The idea behind larazotide is to reduce the effects of small amounts of ingested gluten.
For example, if you go out to a restaurant, or are invited to dinner by friends, it may be hard or impossible to guarantee that the food is definitely 100% gluten-free.
In this case, larazotide can help by reducing the damage gluten has on the gut.
Larazotide is not intended as a replacement for a gluten-free diet. It doesn’t look like it will help with a gluten allergy either.
What it may do, if larger trials bear out earlier results, is allow a little more freedom when occasional situations may expose you to small amounts of gluten.
It will also likely prove useful it healing a severely damaged gut when someone is first diagnosed with celiac disease.
So while larazotide is not a true cure for celiac disease, it could well be a very useful tool in managing some of the effects of eating gluten.