2019 Preview: Experimental vaccine could let coeliacs eat gluten

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Bread and pasta may be back on the menu for people with coeliac disease participating in a clinical trial next year.

Coeliac disease makes you unable to eat foods containing gluten without experiencing an immune reaction that damages your gut and can cause vomiting, diarrhoea and fatigue.

A vaccine called Nexvax2 could change that. It contains synthetic fragments of gluten that can be recognised by the immune system, but don’t trigger a full immune reaction when introduced in gradually increasing doses. This teaches a person’s immune system to see gluten as harmless.

The vaccine has …