To date, no treatment exists against gluten intolerance. But it could well be that a protein will soon revolutionize the daily lives of those affected by this autoimmune disease. Researchers from Inra and Inserm in collaboration with Canadian and Swiss colleagues have revealed the role of this protein, called elafin. It would protect against the inflammatory reaction characteristic of celiac disease.
Celiac disease or gluten intolerance changes the lives of people who have it. It is impossible for them to consume gluten without experiencing chronic abdominal pain such as cramps and diarrhea. Not to mention that they are more vulnerable to certain cancers (small intestine, lymphoma). At the origin of this pathology, we find a protein incapable of properly breaking down gluten during digestion. This is where elafine finds its interest. It indeed manages to interact with this protein responsible for the poor degradation of gluten and even to inhibit a key step in this degradation.
The researchers also succeeded in developing a probiotic bacterium capable of delivering elafin to the intestinal mucosa in mice. In gluten-intolerant mice, it appeared that elafin delivered by the probiotic greatly reduced the inflammatory reaction.
These findings, published online on the site of the American Journal of Gastroenterology, “pave the way for new strategies for treating gluten intolerance,” the INRA researchers explained in a press release.
