Medical reporter Cathryn Delude from the LA Times (“New hope for celiac disease sufferers?”, December 21st 2009) talks with Nexpep CEO Dr Robert Anderson about Nexvax2, the coeliac vaccine currently in a clinical trial in Australia.
For the 2 million plus Americans with celiac (coeliac) disease a strict lifelong gluten free diet is essential for good health. However removing all traces of gluten is difficult as it is ubiquitous in the Western diet and found in some unlikely sources such as vinegar, soy sauce and medications. Perhaps not surprisingly then, a long-term gluten free diet only heals the small intestine in about half of the patients following it. This is concerning, as persistent inflammation caused by coeliac disease is associated with a higher risk of problems such as nutritional deficiencies, osteoporosis, malignancies, and increased mortality.
Dr Anderson explains the vaccine, Nexvax2, is under investigation as a non-dietary therapy for coeliac disease that aims to retrain the immune system to tolerate gluten. Nexvax2 is composed of the key gluten peptides that trigger the coeliac immune response. Dr Anderson says the theory is that multiple injections of Nexvax2 into the skin, bypassing the gut, may modify the immune system so that the damaging response to gluten no longer occurs.
A phase I safety trial of Nexvax2 is currently underway and Dr Anderson expects it to be completed in mid-2010.
The full article can be found on the LA Times website.