Skip to main content
ARS Home » Plains Area » Manhattan, Kansas » Center for Grain and Animal Health Research » Stored Product Insect and Engineering Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #387383
Research Project: Next-Generation Approaches for Monitoring and Management of Stored Product Insects

Location: Stored Product Insect and Engineering Research

Title: Effective degradation of gluten and its fragments by gluten-specific peptidases: application for the treatment of patients with gluten sensitivity

Author
item DUNAEVSKY, YAKOV - Moscow State University
item TERESHCHENKOVA, VALERIIA - Moscow State University
item BELOZERSKY, MIKHAIL - Moscow State University
item FILIPPOVA, IRINA - Moscow State University
item Oppert, Brenda
item ELPIDINA, ELENA - Moscow State University

Submitted to: Pharmaceutics
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/28/2021
Publication Date: 10/2/2021
Citation: Dunaevsky, Y., Tereshchenkova, V., Belozersky, M., Filippova, I., Oppert, B.S., Elpidina, E. 2021. Effective degradation of gluten and its fragments by gluten-specific peptidases: application for the treatment of patients with gluten sensitivity. Pharmaceutics. 13(10). Article 1603. https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics13101603.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics13101603

Interpretive Summary: Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease caused by consumption of food that has gluten, such as breads. The more common treatment for celiac patients is to avoid gluten products, but that’s not always possible. Better treatments for celiac patients would be an oral therapy, and the more promising therapies in development use enzymes that can destroy dietary glutens. This review discusses why glutens are problematic, symptoms of celiac disease, and promising enzyme treatments, including those from insects with specialized enzymes that can digest glutens. New approaches to treatments can improve the health and quality of life of celiac patients.

Technical Abstract: To date, there is no effective treatment for celiac disease (CD, gluten enteropathy), an autoimmune disease caused by gluten-containing food. Celiac patients are supported by a strict gluten-free diet (GFD). However, in some cases GFD does not negate gluten-induced symptoms. Many patients with CD, despite following such a diet, retain symptoms of active disease due to high sensitivity even to traces of gluten. In addition, strict adherence to GFD reduces the quality of life of patients, as often it is difficult to maintain in a professional or social environment. Various pharmacological treatments are being developed to complement the gluten-free diet. One promising treatment is enzyme therapy, involving the intake of peptidases (proteases) with food to digest immunogenic gluten peptides that are resistant to hydrolysis due to a high prevalence of proline and glutamine amino acids. This review will consider the features of the main proline/glutamine-rich proteins of cereals, the conditions that cause the symptoms of CD, evaluate information about peptidases from various sources that can effectively break down these proteins and their immunogenic peptides, analyze data on their activity and preliminary clinical evaluation, and discuss the possibility of their use to obtain gluten-free products as well as problems of their therapeutic use.