Ancient Wheat Could Yield Celiac-Friendly Bread

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Ancient Wheat Could Yield Celiac-Friendly Bread

 

1 hour, 59 minutes ago

 

By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - An analysis of ancient strains of wheat could

eventually yield a bread recipe that people with celiac disease can relish.

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Celiac disease is a digestive disorder that damages the small intestine and

interferes with the absorption of nutrients from food. It arises from an immune

system response against the protein gluten, which is found in wheat, rye and

barley.

 

The cornerstone of managing the condition is a gluten-free diet. That means

avoiding breads, cereals and other products containing whole wheat or wheat

flours, including grains such as bulgur, barley, spelt, kamut and semolina.

 

An alternative, according to the authors of the new study, would be to find

" bread-quality " wheats that do not contain gluten proteins that are harmful to

people with celiac disease.

 

That notion has gotten a lift from recent research detailing exactly which parts

of the wheat gluten protein are targeted by celiac patients' T-cells, the immune

system sentries that normally do battle with foreign invaders such as viruses.

 

Dr. Oyvind Molberg of the University of Oslo in Norway told Reuters Health that

the aberrant immune response seen in celiac disease is driven by T-cell

recognition of small pieces of protein -- called peptides -- derived from

gluten.

 

Using intestinal T-cells taken from people with celiac disease, Molberg and his

colleagues had previously found that particular bits of the gluten protein

--known as 33mer fragments -- are targeted by T-cells, and seem to be the main

source of the inflammatory response in celiac disease.

 

The goal of the new study, published in the journal Gastroenterology, was to

find out whether those same T-cells would go after the gluten found in ancient

strains of wheat. The researchers tested the cells' ability to recognize the

gluten from a number of wheat strains, which carried different variants of the

genes that code for gluten.

 

Most of tested wheat strains, according to Molberg, are currently cultivated in

the historic " Fertile Crescent " area of the Middle East.

 

The researchers found that wheats of certain genetic makeups -- including a

grain known as einkorn, and certain pasta wheats -- did not appear to contain

the troublesome 33mer fragment or protein bits similar to it.

 

" This indicates that there is a chance of identifying or producing by natural

breeding a primitive wheat that can be tolerated by celiac disease patients, "

Molberg said.

 

He stressed that this study does not identify such a wheat, but instead

" provides a framework " for further research.

 

According to Molberg, some of the ancient wheat strains his team analyzed can be

turned into " high-quality " bread. The main obstacle, he said, is that the

structure of the plants keeps them from being harvested as easily as widely used

bread and pasta wheats. That problem, Molberg noted, could be overcome through

breeding.

 

SOURCE: Gastroenterology, February 2005.

 

 

 

 

 

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