Uncovering the effects of cooking, digestion on gluten and wheat allergens in pasta -- ScienceDaily

 "In the lab, the researchers cooked store-bought pasta and simulated how the body would digest it. They found that while some gluten proteins persisted throughout the cooking and digestion process, other allergenic non-gluten proteins are lost during boiling as they almost completely leak into the cooking water. This suggests that for people with particular types of wheat allergies unrelated to celiac disease, eating pasta might cause a weaker reaction than wheat products that are baked, the researchers say. Their findings also contribute to understanding the chemistry of gluten digestion."



'via Blog this'

Antibody Repertoire Profiling Using Bacterial Display Identifies Reactivity Signatures of Celiac Disease - Analytical Chemistry (ACS Publications)

A general strategy to identify serum antibody specificities associated with a given disease state and peptide reagents for their detection was developed using bacterial display peptide libraries and multiparameter flow cytometry (MPFC). Using sera from patients with celiac disease (CD) (n = 45) or healthy subjects (n = 40), bacterial display libraries were screened for peptides that react specifically with antibodies from CD patients and not with those from healthy patients. The libraries were screened for peptides that simultaneously cross-react with CD patient antibodies present in two separate patient groups labeled with spectrally distinct fluorophores but do not react with unlabeled non-CD antibodies, thus affording a quantitative separation. A panel of six unique peptide sequences yielded 85% sensitivity and 91% specificity (AUC = 0.91) on a set of 60 samples not used for discovery, using leave-one-out cross-validation. Individual peptides were dissimilar with known CD-specific antigens tissue transglutaminase (tTG) and deamidated gliadin, and the classifier accuracy was independent of anti-tTG antibody titer. These results demonstrate that bacterial display/MPFC provides a highly effective tool for the unbiased discovery of disease-associated antibody specificities and peptide reagents for their detection that may have broad utility for diagnostic development.

Celiac 'epidemics' link to infections early in life

Celiac disease affects about 1% of the population but occasional ‘epidemics’ have been noticed along with a seasonal variation in number of cases diagnosed. New research published in BioMed Central’s open access journal BMC Pediatrics indicates that repeated infections early in life increases the risk for celiac disease

Duodenal and faecal microbiota of celiac children: molecular, phenotype and metabolome characterization.

Compared to healthy individuals, celiac disease patients seemed to be characterized by higher numbers of Gram-negative bacteria and lower numbers of Gram-positive bacteria. Some molecules (e.g., ethyl-acetate and octyl-acetate, some short chain fatty acids and free amino acids, and glutamine) seems to be metabolic signatures of celiac disease.