Experts Identify Three Culprits for Gluten Allergy
HONG KONG (Reuters) Jul 21 - Researchers have identified three fragments in gluten that appear to trigger the autoimmune response in people with celiac disease. The findings, published online July 21st in Science Translational Medicine, may lead to a more targeted cure for the disease instead of what patients do now - abstain completely from food containing wheat, barley and rye and their by-products. "If you can (narrow down) the toxicity of an allergen to a few components, that enables you to make a highly targeted therapy in a way that you no longer need to target the whole immune system," said researcher Dr. Robert Anderson of The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Victoria, Australia. In the case of celiac disease, which is not an allergy but an autoimmune disorder, autoantibodies produced in response to gluten damage the lining of the small intestine. In order to identify the antigenic peptides recognized by the T cells that cause th