Clinical Trials – A New Ray of Hope for Celiac Disease Patients

At present, the only way to treat celiac disease is through a strict and lifelong gluten-free diet. When you say “gluten-free diet,” it simply means prohibiting yourself from eating foods that contain barley, rye, or wheat. People who have celiac disease may suffer severe symptoms or may have no obvious or visible symptoms at all. The common symptoms of celiac disease include the following:

• Feeling weak and tired
• Feeling of discomfort or pain in the stomach
• Greater occurrence of flatulence
• Severe weight loss
• Diarrhea

It is essential that you always read thoroughly the ingredients of what you eat since gluten usually comes in lesser-known names. For instance, wheat can sometimes be called triticale, spelt, or khorasan. Regardless of these restrictions, celiac disease patients can still enjoy a well-balanced diet without suffering from a monotonous menu pattern. However, it isn’t always that easy; not everyone understands how greatly gluten can affect patients with celiac disease.

There are many researchers who are working to discover newer forms of treatment for celiac disease apart from the already known gluten-free diet. If you or anyone you know is suffering from celiac disease, you can actually help to further advance this research by joining a group in a clinical trial. These kinds of advanced clinical trials, including those conducted by Stryde Research, are heavily dependent on the participation of multiple volunteers from across the globe. Many of the studies require healthy volunteers, whereas others specifically call for individuals who suffer from celiac disease, the reason being that they would be helpful in exploring any potential newer forms of treatment or therapy when it comes to curing celiac disease or treating its symptoms. Apart from that, every clinical trial is known to have its own set of segregation and insertion benchmarks when it comes to recruiting the necessary volunteers. They may include only those limited to age, the geographical location of the individual, gender, the length of the diagnosis, how severe the reaction is to gluten exposure, and many other criteria. Moreover, there are also lots of procedures that should be carried out prior to certifying a new drug. In the initial stage, researchers aim to achieve a better understanding of the disease process itself, and then they move on to determining a specific target. Mostly, it would take around four to five years of laboratory research work in order to create a new drug, which would then be experimented and tested on humans.  

• BiolineRx (BL-7010): BiolineRx has been committed to determining in the field of licensing. As well as carrying out promising healing in candidates, BiolineRx has been recognized as a reputable clinical-stage biopharmaceutical. The main strategy of this company is involved with a drug called BL-7010. This drug is a large, non-absorbable polymer, and once the medicine is taken orally, it has been observed to stop the protein’s degradation in gluten, which is known as gliadin, leading to an overactive response from the immune system.
• Innovate biopharmaceuticals (INN-202): Innovate is also considered to be a reputed clinical-stage biotechnology firm and is privately owned. The main focus of this firm is to create novel gastroenterology drugs. In February, 2016, the firm licensed Alba Therapeutics’ assets, which is also popularly known as INN-202. It proved unfailingly to decrease celiac disease’s clinical symptoms in various clinical trials in over 800 patients.
• Celimmune (AMG 714): Celimmune is known to be a clinical development-stage immunotherapy company, and it is mostly dedicated to the formation of various transformation therapies. The main aim of these therapies is to relieve the symptoms of celiac disease along the refractory celiac disease as well as any other kinds of autoimmune diseases. The company had licensed AMG 715 from Amgen in the year 2015. AMG 714 relates to a monoclonal antibody, which is known to target the IL-15, a type of cytokine.