Gluten links from Bloggeier

My thanks to Bloggeier for these links, especially for the full text of the letter to GUT from the Spanish group.

These are various groups who are interested in innate gluten toxicity (GUT letter), non antibody investigation of food sensitivity and combined reactivity to gluten and casein in some coeliacs.

Quotes from the letter to GUT, which has restricted access:

"Nowadays it is assumed that an innate immunity to gluten plays a key role in the development of coeliac disease (CD). This innate response, mediated by interleukin (IL) 15 and elicited by "toxic peptides", like the 19-mer, through a DQ2-independent mechanism, induces epithelial stress and reprogrammes intraepithelial lymphocytes into natural killer (NK)-like cells leading to enterocyte apoptosis and an increase in epithelium permeability"

Try telling that to a Nottingham gastroenterologist!

"We consider that, to our knowledge, this is the first time that an IL15-mediated innate response to gliadin and gliadin peptides is described in individuals without CD, as well as an IL15-mediated innate response to the "non-toxic" deaminated immunodominant 33-mer peptide"

The 33 amino acid section is supposed to be non toxic itself (which turns out to be incorrect, it is toxic) but provides a focus for antibody production, which leads to severe secondary damage by the antibody. This still happens.

"Moreover, the IL15-mediated response in patients without CD was also triggered by the toxic 19-mer gliadin peptide (three of six) and, especially, by the 33-mer gliadin peptide (five of six). Importantly, none of the basal cultures produced this cytokine and, although not expected, the "non-toxic" immunodominant 33-mer was also able to induce an innate response"

Of their biopsy samples from NON COELIAC DISEASE people, one out of six did NOT respond to the 33-mer with interleukin 15. Five out of six did. I fully accept that there may be things going on with our immune systems to increase the frequency of allergies (grass pollen has always been around, hay fever was first reported just over 100 years ago as a case report in the Lancet...) but gliadin is directly toxic. It looks like allergy comes later, facilitated by toxicity causing intestinal leakage.

So it is just possible that maybe 1 person in six might NOT respond adversely to gluten. Notice that the researchers put "non toxic" in quotation marks, at least twice. These people know what they're talking about. I wonder if any of the group eat digestive biscuits with their coffee at lab meetings?



I'm not sure if I got the full text of the multimodal imaging paper through my athens account or if it's free access, but the interest this group has in getting away from crude antibody tests for food intolerance is impressive. Using some of their techniques would allow you to look at things like salicylate and amine toxicity, which probably have nothing to do with antibody production and very little to do with the immune system at all. The sort of sensitivity that gets you labeled as a malingerer in Nottingham...

Peter