It’s a new piece to the puzzle on gluten intolerance (or celiac disease) that Australian researchers have just added. They have just identified why some people with celiac disease develop an immune response after eating oats. The results of this study published in the Journal of Autoimmunity will certainly help to conduct better toxicity tests of oats, but they will also pave the way for new treatments for celiac disease. The results obtained by Australian researchers have indeed shown that, of the 73 people with celiac disease they followed for ten years, 8% also had oat intolerance. According to doctors, this reaction is due to the fact that the protein in oats, avenin, is very similar to gluten.
“By discovering which proteins are responsible for these intolerances in people with celiac disease who ate oats, we were able to define a detailed immune profile. This will allow us to design new, more targeted treatments” explains Dr Jason Tye-Din, gastroenterologist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (Australia) who led this research.
In people with celiac disease, ingesting gluten, a protein found in rice, barley and wheat, elicits an immune response, which damages the gut. It also leads to poor absorption of calcium, iron and B vitamins and creates possible deficiencies. It is a fairly common disease that affects more than 150,000 people in France.
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