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The economic burden of gluten-free products and the potential of dietary inhibitors of transglutaminase-2
K. L. KRAMER (1), J. Losso (1). (1) Louisiana State University: School of Nutrition and Food Sciences, Baton Rouge, LA, U.S.A.

Celiac disease (CD) is a chronic immune-mediated disease of the small intestine caused by the ingestion of gluten. Gluten is resistant to gastric degradation and presents to the intestine largely intact, where it is deamidated byTransglutaminase-2 (TG2), increasing affinity for Human Leukocyte Antigen DQ2 (HLA-DQ2) and forming a complex that elicits an inflammatory response ultimately leading to destruction of the villi. Increased expression of TG2 is responsible for the activation of CD. The U.S. gluten-free market is growing and will reach $15.6 billion by 2016. With the wide range of applications of gluten in foods, plus high cost and low availability, a gluten-free diet is difficult to maintain and accidental ingestion of gluten is not uncommon. The increase in this market is detrimental to the wheat-based products industry and consumers who cannot afford this diet. The only treatment of CD is strict adherence to a gluten-free diet, though several novel therapies including TG2 inhibition have been investigated. TG2 inhibition shows promising results in vitro and is an attractive target due its central role in pathogenesis of CD. Dietary bioactives such as procyanidins may be capable of inhibiting TG2-induced inflammation in the intestine and reduce symptoms in individuals suffering from CD, and previous studies indicate that procyanidin concentrations can reach 1 mM and is not toxic to cells. In this study, procyanidin dimers reduced levels of TG2 by 56% in vitro. Procyanidin trimers and tetramers have shown binding affinity for gliadin peptides and may also be an effective therapy in CD, though no other studies investigate the inhibitory action of procyanidin on TG2. This presentation will discuss dietary inhibitors of TG2 that can be used with wheat-based products as therapy for CD. The gain to consumers and the wheat-based industry will be significant.

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