Paging Robert Koch

Seemingly innocuous virus can trigger celiac disease

The current study, a collaboration with Terence Dermody, MD, chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and physician-in-chief and scientific director at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, shows that intestinal viruses can induce the immune system to overreact to gluten and trigger the development of celiac disease. Using two different reovirus strains, the researchers showed how genetic differences between viruses can change how they interact with the immune system. Both reovirus strains induced protective immunity and did not cause overt disease. However, when given to mice, one common human reovirus triggered an inflammatory immune response and the loss of oral tolerance to gluten, while another closely related but genetically different strain did not.