Celiac Disease

Celiac Disease (CD) is a disorder of the small intestine that is caused by abnormal responses to gluten proteins.

CD affects about 1% of the population in the Western Hemisphere and a similar high frequency is expected in countries in which the population is predominantly Caucasian, including the Middle-East, India and parts of China.
CD has a highly diverse clinical spectrum which can include abdominal pain, diarrhea, malabsorption, and/or poor growth as well as serious complications such as osteoporosis, infertility, miscarriage, dermatitis herpetiformis, and lymphoma. CD is a multifactorial disease, whose onset, progression, and clinical manifestations are thought to be determined by a variety of genes and environmental factors.This is exemplified by the demonstration that in CD patients inflammatory immune responses are induced by complexes of (modified) gluten peptides and the disease predisposing HLA-DQ2 or HLA-DQ8 molecules. Currently, the only available treatment is a lifetime of gluten-free diet, a difficult prospect because gluten is found in wheat, barley and rye, and is present in many processed foods or through contamination.
CD is also a hidden threat to public health. Screening programmes have shown that it is severely under-diagnosed, leaving most patients improperly treated or not treated at all.
Despite progress in understanding the disease, many problems remain unsolved. The Celiac Disease Consortium aims to address the key problems surrounding CD.