Coeliac Disease – (CD-MEDICS)

May 6, 2008 - PRLog -- The European Commission, under the auspices of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), within the 7th Framework Research Programme, has designated 9.5M€ towards research and innovation for the diagnosis, monitoring and management of Coeliac Disease (CD). The Integrated “Co-operation” Project, ‘Coeliac Disease – Management, Monitoring and Diagnosis using Biosensors and an Integrated Chip  System (CD-MEDICS)’, is a highly ambitious project, co-ordinated by Ciara O’ Sullivan of the Universitat Rovira I Virgili in Spain.  Thjs integrated project brings together through its 21 partners, including some of Europe’s finest researchers and institutes to execute a four-year project that can be expected to have significant beneficial impact.  Universities, hospitals and technology centres of 10 European countries (Spain, Germany, United Kingdom, Greece, Italy, Sweden, Finland, Slovenia, Ireland and Belgium) will put together their large scientific experience with the aim of exploiting breakthroughs at the confluences of bio-, micro- and nano- technologies to create a low-cost non-invasive intelligent technology platform for point-of-care diagnostics, capable of simultaneous genomic and proteomic detection, with embedded communication abilities for direct interfacing with hospital information systems.

Coeliac disease affects 1 in 100genetically predisposed individuals who develop a small intestinal inflammation (enteropathy) on exposure to dietary gluten.  Symptoms can include bloating, abdominal pain, nausea, constipation, diarrhoea, wind, tiredness, anaemia, headaches, mouth ulcers, recurrent miscarriages, weight loss (but not in all cases), skin problems, depression, joint or bone pain and nerve problems.  The only treatment is the life-long avoidance of ingestion of gluten.

Due to the wide variety of the symptoms of the disease, not only do coeliac disease patients suffer from a reduced quality of life during the years they pass undiagnosed – the average delay from onset of symptoms to diagnosis being 11.7 years, but they are also unnecessarily hospitalised and quite often completely misdiagnosed, and treated with costly drugs.  There are serious problems associated with untreated coeliac disease including osteoporosis, infertility, certain kinds of gut cancer and increased risk of other autoimmune diseases.  Early diagnosis and strict maintenance of a gluten-free diet will significantly reduce the risk of problems associated with coeliac disease.  

Population screening is the only way to identify the majority of CD patients.  Serology-only tests are not sufficient, as false negatives are often encountered.  HLA-typing alone can also show false positives, as it can also point to subjects who eventually may not develop coeliac disease.  A combination of serology and HLA-typing is the only definitive way to screen for coeliac disease; a combined diagnosis accounting for symptomatic, silent and latent CD patients aims for a 100% specificity and sensitivity.

An easy-to-use point of care test for use in the primary care setting,will provide better opportunities for early diagnosis and allow periodic monitoring of the patient’s compliance with a gluten-free diet.  Additionally an eventual version of the device could find application in home-monitoring where a GP could follow a patients reaction to withdrawal of gluten from the diet and compliance with the gluten free diet by monitoring the autoantibody levels.

The CD-MEDICS Integrated Project - Coeliac Disease Management Monitoring and Diagnosis using Biosensors and an Integrated Chip System – is bringing innovation and bio-, micro- and nano-technologies to respond to these demands.

A core component of the later diagnosis system is a so called lab-on-a-chip disposable. This credit card sized lab enables the user to directly put a drop of blood in the lab-on-a-chip device, insert this device in the respective instrument and run the diagnostic test without any further actions besides pushing the start button. The lab-on-a-chip device looks like a simple piece of plastic but incorporates comprehensive intelligence: in a first instance a microstructured fluidic network allowing for a precisely controlled flow of reagents, secondly a specially adapted surface for capturing the biological components being looked for, and finally an electrically driven sensor system to enable  an integrated and extremely fast detection.


The CD MEDICS project also aims at building point-of-care diagnostic devices that are capable of seamlessly operating in all point-of-care-driven environments (e.g. clinical laboratories, hospitals, physicians’ offices and patient-self-testing at home or mobile) and transparently communicating with existing Hospital Information Systems (HIS) and patient’s Electronic Health Record (EHR). This approach will allow for the integration of the information collected by the PoC device with the patient’s EHR content, the advanced co process with stored information (e.g. patient age, gender, main diagnoses and therapies), and therefore for a better analysis and interpretation of the measurement results.

The Project brings together a unique combination of skills and disciplines - from experts in biosensors to microfluidics and from information technology to the commercial exploitation of antibody and genetic testing.  Harnessing these skills, the project will share expertise across the disciplines with a series of training workshops aimed at researchers and technicians across Europe.  Engaging healthcare professionals with the potential of the new technology will also be a key feature of the project.  As a practical tool which will allow the healthcare professional to proactively investigate and manage coeliac disease, the technology will prompt a better recognition of the needs of coeliac patients and the potential for diverse technologies to enhance healthcare.  

The rapid dissemination of the innovative screening technology as well as an increase in awareness of CD amongst primary health workers is required to gain the utmost advantage from the screening method. CD-Medics thus has a whole workpackage dedicated to dissemination  and it is planned that this shall be achieved through the identification of synergies and collaborative activities with other CD related research. A series of roadshows will be organised to obtain the necessary feedback from other researchers and end users as well as participation in conferences, trade fairs and publications.  

Further information can be obtained from the project website: http://www.cdmedics.eu

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The Association of European Coeliac Societies (AOECS) was founded in 1988. AOECS is the umbrella organisation of European Coeliac Societies and is an independent non-profit association. AOECS reviews problems of international importance, coordinates international activities and matters of common interest of the members and favours the exchange of information among the members for the benefit of Europeans affected by the coeliac condition or dermatitis herpetiformis.