CONTAINMENT OF THE T-CELL RESPONSE TO GLUTEN IN COELIAC DISEASE
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$324,270.00
Summary
Coeliac disease affects about 1% of Casucasians and West Asians, about 250,000 Australians. Diagnosis of coeliac disease is problematic, less than one fifth of Australians with coeliac disease have been diagnosed, while many more adopt a gluten free diet and strictly avoid foods made from wheat, barley, rye and oats mistakenly thinking that they have coeliac disease. New diagnostics and therapies that are easy to perform and acceptable to patients are badly needed if the public are to benefit fr ....Coeliac disease affects about 1% of Casucasians and West Asians, about 250,000 Australians. Diagnosis of coeliac disease is problematic, less than one fifth of Australians with coeliac disease have been diagnosed, while many more adopt a gluten free diet and strictly avoid foods made from wheat, barley, rye and oats mistakenly thinking that they have coeliac disease. New diagnostics and therapies that are easy to perform and acceptable to patients are badly needed if the public are to benefit from emerging understanding of coeliac disease. It is an unfortunate mistake that the immune system recognizes and reacts to gluten in people with coeliac disease. The immune cells that sense gluten and damage the intestine, T-cells, detect only very specific short fragments (epitopes) of gluten proteins. Understanding which gluten fragments cause coeliac disease would enable new tests to diagnose coeliac disease, design of non-toxic gluten, and may even allow new treatments that could desensitise the immune system to gluten in the same way that desensitisation therapy works for allergy. Understanding of the gluten fragments causing coeliac disease is improving but it is still incomplete. We have developed a simple test that can pin-point the gluten fragments recognized by any individual with coeliac disease. With the help of volunteers with coeliac disease and a library of fragmented gluten proteins, we will be able to map all the regions of gluten in wheat, barley, rye, and oats that stimulate T-cells. We will find the most potent epitopes that could be used in diagnostic tests, food tests, and desensitisation therapy. Studying individuals with coeliac disease when they eat oats, normally a forbidden food for coeliac suffers yet fewer than 1:4 actually react to oats, will define the changes in intestinal tissue following destructive or tolerant responses to this grain and provide a tool to assess future desensitisation therapies for coeliac disease.Read moreRead less
The OUTBACK Trial - The Role Of Adjuvant Chemotherapy In Locally Advanced Cervical Cancer
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,472,782.00
Summary
This international randomized phase III trial will test the value of giving additional chemotherapy treatment to women with locally advanced cervix cancer following standard chemo-radiation treatment. The aim is to improve survival rates for these women, many of whom have a 40% or greater chance of their disease relapsing after treatment. The trial has been designed in Australia, and is open in multiple countries with Australia New Zealand Gynaecological Oncology Group (ANZGOG) as the lead group ....This international randomized phase III trial will test the value of giving additional chemotherapy treatment to women with locally advanced cervix cancer following standard chemo-radiation treatment. The aim is to improve survival rates for these women, many of whom have a 40% or greater chance of their disease relapsing after treatment. The trial has been designed in Australia, and is open in multiple countries with Australia New Zealand Gynaecological Oncology Group (ANZGOG) as the lead group.Read moreRead less
Benefits Of Home-based Multidisciplinary Rehabilitation In Non Small Cell Lung Cancer
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$581,039.00
Summary
Lung cancer is the third leading cause of death in Australia. People with lung cancer experience a complex mix of symptoms that can provoke significant distress and impair physical function. This study aims to develop and test a home based exercise and self-management support program to increase function and physical activity levels, reduce levels of depression and improve quality of life of people with lung cancer.