Toxic, immunostimulatory and antagonist gluten peptides in celiac disease.
Authors: Silano M, Vincentini O, De Vincenzi M
Celiac disease (CD) is an increasingly diagnosed, permanent autoimmune enteropathy, triggered, in susceptible individuals, by the ingestion of gluten, the alcohol - soluble protein fraction of some cereals, such as wheat, rye and barley. The main protein of wheat gluten is called gliadin, the similar proteins of rye and barley are secalin and hordein, respectively. Approximately 96% of CD patients express the HLA molecule DQ2, while the remainder mostly express the less common haplotype DQ8, reflecting the pivotal role of these molecules in the pathogenesis of CD. Because of their aminoacid sequence and tri-dimensional structure, gluten peptides selectively bind to these HLA alleles present on the surface of antigen presenting cells and th... MedWorm Supporter Message: Find a vast selection of gluten free food and GF cookbooks at the Sensible Celiac.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?tmpl=NoSidebarfile&db=PubMed&cmd=Retrieve&list_uids=19355902&dopt=Abstract
