Apr 08, 2017 07:39 AM EDT By Eleanor Bright, UniversityHerald Reporter

Common virus was found to trigger Celiac disease, a food reaction against gluten. Reovirus is common and appears harmless. However, a person infected with it may be susceptible to Celiac Disease.

When a person is infected with reovirus, the immune system would flag gluten as harmful bacteria instead of food. As a result, the person starts to show symptoms of celiac disease. In the United States, out of 0 to 40 percent exhibiting celiac disease features, only 1 percent is confirmed to have it. This means that symptoms of celiac disease could be triggered by other pathogens and not just gluten, Science News reported.

The person may show celiac disease symptoms such as vomiting, fatigue and chronic diarrhea. However, these had been caused by getting infected with reovirus and not food allergy such as celiac disease.

Gluten-free diet had become a fad for many years. Many people had been afraid of getting celiac disease. In short, gluten is not the only substance that causes celiac disease. This knowledge will encourage them to stop their gluten-free diet and have a balance diet.

Several experiments had been conducted that celiac disease had been triggered by common virus rather than by ingesting food rich in gluten. Researchers at University of Chicago, Illinois tested feeding gluten-rich food to mice infected with reovirus. The mice produced huge amount of antibodies to fight gluten.

Normally, the immune system would not mind an ingestion of gluten. However, once infected with reovirus, it aggressive reacts to foods that are not gluten-free. These findings might lead to the production of vaccine to prevent reovirus infection. This would save people from suffering celiac disease-like symptoms and rid them of the fear to eat food rich in gluten, the New Scientist reported.

In addition, these findings explain why not everyone thought to be prone to celiac disease suffer from it. The absence of reovirus infection resulted to absence of gluten intolerance.

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