Experts advise caution about claims of a pill that could enable people with diabetes and coeliac disease to eat foods that are normally off-limits. People with coeliac disease need to avoid wheat and diabetics sugary foods to manage their medical conditions. The University of Maryland, Baltimore team say a pill that makes the gut more watertight could allow these patients to eat whatever they want. But the early studies were on rats and experts questioned the implications. They argue the best way to manage food intolerance is by avoiding problem foods and eating a healthy, balanced diet and taking regular exercise. The pill, called AT-1001, works by blocking the production of a protein found in the body which is called zonulin. Zonulin regulates how porous or permeable the intestine is. People with diseases like diabetes and coeliac disease tend to have too much zonulin, which the Baltimore scientists said means more foodstuff, toxins and other bacterial and viral particles within the gut can pass into the blood stream. Lead investigator Dr Alessio Fazano said this, in turn, causes the body to attack itself, which can lead to problems like diabetes and coeliac disease. He said: “With autoimmune diseases, the body mistakes its own tissue as foreign, resulting in an attack and destruction by the body’s own immune system. “These diseases are all characterised by an extremely permeable intestinal wall. “We have been able to identify a way to prevent zonulin from causing leakage from the intestines as it does in people with these autoimmune diseases.”
