Researchers Pinpoint Cause of Gluten Allergies

[Guest guest]

(Oh PLEASE let there be a cure!!!!!!!!!!)

Health

Researchers Pinpoint Cause of Gluten Allergies

By Rettner, LiveScience Staff Writer

When patients with celiac disease consume foods containing gluten — a protein

present in wheat, barley and rye — their immune systems send out an alarm,

triggering a response that can damage their intestines and prevent them from

absorbing certain nutrients.

Now, scientists have pinpointed the culprits most responsible for this harmful

reaction: three small fragments within the gluten protein that spark chaos in

the gut.

This knowledge may lead to the development of new therapies for the disease, the

researchers say. Currently, the only treatment is for patients to remove all

gluten-containing foods (such as bread, pasta, pizza and cookies) from their

diets.

The results are published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The results are published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Troublesome peptides

For most dieters, eating forbidden foods will set them back from reaching their

goals, but for those with celiac disease such mistakes can be graver. The

reaction from consuming gluten eventually can lead to deficiencies in essential

vitamins essential. In children, the result can mean stunted growth, according

to the Mayo Clinic.

Although gluten's role in celiac disease was discovered 60 years ago, scientists

are still looking for specific gluten fragments — sequences of a dozen or so

amino acids (building blocks of proteins such as gluten) — that set off this

immune reaction.

Bob , a celiac disease researcher at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute

in , Australia, and fellow researchers recruited more than 200 celiac

disease patients for their study. Participants ate servings of bread, rye

muffins or boiled barley for three days. Six days after the experiment started,

the researchers drew blood samples.

They tested the samples to see how strongly immune cells in the blood reacted to

more than 2,700 different gluten peptides (relatively short chains of amino

acids). Ninety of the peptides elicited some response, and three in particular

generated the biggest reaction.

" The holy grail in celiac disease research has been to identify the toxic

peptide components of gluten, and that's what we've done, " said in a

statement. " These three components account for the majority of the immune

response to gluten. "

While researchers had hypothesized that the immune response seen in celiac

patients was only to a few peptides, the current work is the first real data to

support this idea, said Leffler, director of clinical research at the

Celiac Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Mass.

" I think [the findings] are a significant step forward, " he said. " There's

really been not that much done on defining which peptides people with celiac

disease do and do not respond to, " especially for the peptides in rye and barley

gluten, he said.

" It really does make our understanding of potential ways to target those

therapeutically much easier, " he said.

Future therapies

Therapies based on the study results are already under way at a biotechnology

company co-founded by .

Nexpep Pty. Ltd., based in Australia, is working to develop a treatment based on

the idea that people with an allergy can be desensitized to the substance they

are allergic to by consuming small amounts of it. A few studies have supported

the idea; for instance, small studies have suggested exposing children with milk

allergies to increasing doses of milk can increase their tolerance.

In the case of celiac disease, exposing patients to small amounts of the three

peptides may allow them to better tolerate gluten, the researchers say.

Leffler thinks the findings might also help with the development of so-called

protease therapies — therapies that aim to treat celiac disease by breaking down

gluten.

is director of Nexpep. Several of the researchers are shareholders and

serve as consultants.

This article was updated Wednesday at 3:35 pm ET.

http://www.livescience.com/health/celiac-disease-gluten-peptides-100721.html

=====

[Guest guest]

i thought it was the fact that the viruses and bacterias reduce the lining of

the intestines and stomach, such that they cant digest the bigger chain

molecules, the biggest being caesin and gluten. Hence these are not broken down

properly, and are attacked by the immune system for being unrecognized

From: kiddietalk@...

Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:48:31 +0000

Subject: [ ] Researchers Pinpoint Cause of Gluten Allergies

(Oh PLEASE let there be a cure!!!!!!!!!!)

Health

Researchers Pinpoint Cause of Gluten Allergies

By Rettner, LiveScience Staff Writer

When patients with celiac disease consume foods containing gluten — a protein

present in wheat, barley and rye — their immune systems send out an alarm,

triggering a response that can damage their intestines and prevent them from

absorbing certain nutrients.

Now, scientists have pinpointed the culprits most responsible for this harmful

reaction: three small fragments within the gluten protein that spark chaos in

the gut.

This knowledge may lead to the development of new therapies for the disease, the

researchers say. Currently, the only treatment is for patients to remove all

gluten-containing foods (such as bread, pasta, pizza and cookies) from their

diets.

The results are published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The results are published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Troublesome peptides

For most dieters, eating forbidden foods will set them back from reaching their

goals, but for those with celiac disease such mistakes can be graver. The

reaction from consuming gluten eventually can lead to deficiencies in essential

vitamins essential. In children, the result can mean stunted growth, according

to the Mayo Clinic.

Although gluten's role in celiac disease was discovered 60 years ago, scientists

are still looking for specific gluten fragments — sequences of a dozen or so

amino acids (building blocks of proteins such as gluten) — that set off this

immune reaction.

Bob , a celiac disease researcher at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute

in , Australia, and fellow researchers recruited more than 200 celiac

disease patients for their study. Participants ate servings of bread, rye

muffins or boiled barley for three days. Six days after the experiment started,

the researchers drew blood samples.

They tested the samples to see how strongly immune cells in the blood reacted to

more than 2,700 different gluten peptides (relatively short chains of amino

acids). Ninety of the peptides elicited some response, and three in particular

generated the biggest reaction.

" The holy grail in celiac disease research has been to identify the toxic

peptide components of gluten, and that's what we've done, " said in a

statement. " These three components account for the majority of the immune

response to gluten. "

While researchers had hypothesized that the immune response seen in celiac

patients was only to a few peptides, the current work is the first real data to

support this idea, said Leffler, director of clinical research at the

Celiac Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Mass.

" I think [the findings] are a significant step forward, " he said. " There's

really been not that much done on defining which peptides people with celiac

disease do and do not respond to, " especially for the peptides in rye and barley

gluten, he said.

" It really does make our understanding of potential ways to target those

therapeutically much easier, " he said.

Future therapies

Therapies based on the study results are already under way at a biotechnology

company co-founded by .

Nexpep Pty. Ltd., based in Australia, is working to develop a treatment based on

the idea that people with an allergy can be desensitized to the substance they

are allergic to by consuming small amounts of it. A few studies have supported

the idea; for instance, small studies have suggested exposing children with milk

allergies to increasing doses of milk can increase their tolerance.

In the case of celiac disease, exposing patients to small amounts of the three

peptides may allow them to better tolerate gluten, the researchers say.

Leffler thinks the findings might also help with the development of so-called

protease therapies — therapies that aim to treat celiac disease by breaking down

gluten.

is director of Nexpep. Several of the researchers are shareholders and

serve as consultants.

This article was updated Wednesday at 3:35 pm ET.

http://www.livescience.com/health/celiac-disease-gluten-peptides-100721.html

=====