Two atypical patients with a multiple sclerosis (MS)-like illness and evidence of occult celiac disease (CD) were managed by the authors. This prompted screening of a further 49 unselected MS cases for serologic evidence of CD. IgA anti-endomysial antibody was found in one case (2%). IgG anti-gliadin antibody was found in 12% of patients and 13% of blood donors. Anti-gliadin antibody (especiall...

OBJECTIVE Gastrointestinal symptoms are a common feature in children with autism, drawing attention to a potential association with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. However, studies to date regarding the immune response to gluten in autism and its association with celiac disease have been inconsistent. The aim of this study was to assess immune reactivity to gluten in pediatric patients di...

New assays for antibodies to deamidated gliadin peptides (DGP) expressing celiac disease-specific epitopes were evaluated using 154 sera previously tested for endomysial immunoglobulin A (IgA) (EMA), transglutaminase IgA (TGA), and conventional gliadin antibodies. DGP antibody results showed 97% concordance with EMA and TGA results. Of 56 sera negative for EMA and TGA but positive for conventio...

BACKGROUND In coeliac disease (CD) patients, the dominant DQ2-Alpha-I-gliadin peptide recognised by CD4 T cells is contained within peptide sequence 57-73 (p57-73) of Alpha-gliadin. This peptide sequence is also located within a 33-mer protease resistant gliadin fragment and therefore is likely to play an important role in the pathogenesis of CD. AIMS Our aim was to determine whether a B cell...

OBJECTIVE To examine gluten sensitivity through the measurement of anti-gliadin antibody (IgA and IgG), anti-endomysial antibody (endo-IgA), anti-reticulin antibody (IgG) and anti-transglutamase antibody (IgG) levels in blood samples of autistic in the Riyadh area. METHODS The study took place in the Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh between September...

Background: In coeliac disease (CD) patients, the dominant DQ2-A-I-gliadin peptide recognised by CD4 T cells is contained within peptide sequence 57–73 (p57-73) of A-gliadin. This peptide sequence is also located within a 33-mer protease resistant gliadin fragment and therefore is likely to play an important role in the pathogenesis of CD. Aims: Our aim was to determine whether a B cell epitope...

The diagnostic value in coeliac disease of circulating antibodies to casein, crude gliadin, and alpha gliadin was assessed using an adaption of the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay system. alpha Gliadin was the only antigen which consistently separated 26 patients with untreated coeliac disease from 26 normal controls and 13 patients with chronic inflammatory bowel disease. The mean assay inde...

A subgroup of coeliac disease patients continues to experience symptoms even on a gluten-free diet (GFD). We attempted to determine whether these symptoms could be due to either cross-contamination with gluten-containing foods or cross-reactivity between α-gliadin and non-gluten foods consumed on a GFD. We measured the reactivity of affinity-purified polyclonal and monoclonal α-gliadin 33-mer p...

BACKGROUND Selective deamidation of glutamine residues by tissue transglutaminase (tTG) turns gliadin peptides into stronger activators of T cells from celiac disease (CD) patients. We examined the possibility that these modified peptides could be more specific epitopes for circulating antibodies than are native peptides. METHODS Two native synthetic peptides and their respective modified seq...