Grant: Project Grant

Celiac disease is a common food sensitivity triggered by gluten in cereals like wheat, rye and barley and its incidence is rising at an alarming rate. The reasons for this are not fully understood but suggestions are that they relate to changes in the composition or function of gut microbes. We discovered that some pathogens present in the gut use gluten and other non-gluten proteins, as a source of food, but this digestion is partial and generates peptides that cause more inflammation in celiac disease patients. Thus, the metabolic activity of certain bacteria within the gut could increase the chances to develop wheat sensitivity and targeting this function could prevent or treat it. The proposal will study the capacity to digest wheat proteins by the microbe community that resides in the upper gut of celiac patients or controls without the disease. We will then apply these communities to mouse models that express celiac risk genes, and thus are relevant to human disease, to study the inflammation induced. The gluten-free diet is the only available therapy for celiac disease, but it is difficult to follow, expensive and not always effective. The knowledge learned here will guide us in identifying groups of bacteria with optimal capacity to detoxify wheat proteins to prevent or treat food sensitivities, such as celiac disease.