Grain a Double Edged Sword

[JLH]

http://www.glutenfreesociety.org/gluten ... ged-sword/

[tex]

Joan,

That's an excellent article. It contains a lot of information that you won't find just anywhere. For example, I was unaware of the following quote from the article, describing a research project which explored the effects of gluten on the general population:

In a study published in GUT in 2007 a group of researchers asked themselves the question: “Is gliadin really safe for non-coeliac individuals?” In order to test the hypothesis that an innate immune response to gliadin is common in patients with Celiac disease and without Celiac disease, intestinal biopsy cultures were taken from both groups and challenged with crude gliadin, the gliadin synthetic 19-mer (19 amino acid long gliadin peptide) and 33-mer deamidated peptides. Results showed that all patients with or without Celiac disease when challenged with the various forms of gliadin produced an interleukin-15-mediated response. The researchers concluded: “The data obtained in this pilot study supports the hypothesis that gluten elicits its harmful effect, throughout an IL15 innate immune response, on all individuals [my italics].”15

That's downright profound.

Thanks,
Tex

[starfire]

WOW!!!

Thanks, Shirley

[Zizzle]

This is the first article I have read that links gluten to molecular mimicry, as a possible cause of autoimmunity. It also implicates vaccines in this process, since some vaccines use gluten as an adjuvant (I wonder if celiacs know this?). The pertussis vaccine is named. Perhaps the high rate of adverse reactions to DTP are gluten-related???

I'm a big vaccine skeptic. I spaced them out for my kids and don't do flu vaccines.

"5) WHEAT PEPTIDES EXHIBIT MOLECULAR MIMICRY

Gliadorphin and gluten exporphins exhibit a form of molecular mimicry that effects the nervous system, but other wheat proteins affect different organ systems. The digestion of gliadin produces a 33 amino acid long peptide known as 33-mer which has a remarkable homology to the internal sequence of pertactin, the immunodominant sequence in the Bordetella pertussis bacteria (whooping cough). Pertactin is considered a highly immunogenic virulence factor, and is used in vaccines to amplify the adaptive immune response. It is possible the immune system may confuse this 33-mer with a pathogen resulting in either or both a cell-mediated and adaptive immune response against Self."

[tex]

Zizzle,

Research has suggested other molecular mimicry issues with gluten, such as the common rotavirus:

http://journals.lww.com/jpgn/Fulltext/2 ... the.1.aspx

and human intestinal adenovirus:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1433141/

There may be other examples, but I've had these bookmarked for quite some time. The first article is 3 years old, and the second was published 23 years ago.

Tex

[Zizzle]

Thanks Tex!!
Those are very interesting indeed. I'm obviously on the hunt for an infectious cause of MC and even celiac disease, whether it be bacteria or viruses we continue to fight, or ones that simply live within us (past exposure).

I skipped the rotavirus vaccine for my 2 kids...I had nature's vaccine, breastfeeding, and they never got sick. Luckily they were also breastfeeding when I introduced gluten, which I understand now (from the Swedish celiac epidemic of the 80's), was probably protective. Whether the breastmilk coated and protected their GI tract or actually modulated their immune response, I don't know.
But I am a firm believer in the power of exclusive breastfeeding for the prevention of food allergies. Unfortunately my daughter does have seasonal allergies like her father, but no asthma!

My 2 yr old daughter developed Shiga Toxin positive EColi after we visited my family in Guatemala last year. The health authorities here freaked out because they only see 0157 here. She didn't develop any of the life-threatening complications but lost a year of weight gain over that month. It was gutwrenching as a mother too see her so uncomfortable and losing everything she ate. I was told not to breastfeed because the lactose would worsen her diarrhea (another clueless doc!!) Luckily I didn't listen to him. But I wonder what that exposure might have triggerd in her. Had I known then what I know now, I would have put her on a gluten-free diet during her illness and recovery!

But all this makes me wonder again about vaccines. If we vaccinate kids against the most common forms of rotavirus, the less common, more virulent types begin to emerge (we have learned this with the pneumococcal vaccine experience). More vaccines invite new diseases to replace the ones we are slowly eradicating. There is always the potential for a new plague we can't handle.

[tex]

But all this makes me wonder again about vaccines. If we vaccinate kids against the most common forms of rotavirus, the less common, more virulent types begin to emerge (we have learned this with the pneumococcal vaccine experience). More vaccines invite new diseases to replace the ones we are slowly eradicating. There is always the potential for a new plague we can't handle.

Yep, Darwin's Theory of Evolution was based on natural selection, and anytime we interfere with a natural selection process, (by artificially suppressing certain strains), we promote the propagation of the competing strains.

Tex