<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

After reading the article, "Recombinant Antibody Blocks Grass Pollen
Allergen", http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/441178 , I posed the
question, "Can recombinant antibodies be engineered to prevent gluten
reactions?"

I received no responses, so I took it upon myself to see if I could find
some answers to the question.  I ran across the following on-going joint
European celiac research project:

http://immunology.no/cd/eu

The project's background and detail information is extremely interesting:

http://immunology.no/cd/eu/background.html

Current focus on gluten antigens that cause celiac disease is centered on
deamidated gluten peptides which stimulate T cell responses associated with
celiac disease.  Deamidated refers to a process which modifies orginal
gluten peptides by converting glutamines into glutamic acid.  At least 11
such deamidated gluten peptides have been identified.

This research is exciting because it can lead to better ways of determining
gluten toxicity in foods and possible new ways to treat celiac disease.

But to answer my orginal question about engineering antibodies to prevent
gluten reactions, it would seem to me possible that recombinant antibodies
might be engineered to block these deamidated gluten peptide antigens and
prevent the T cell stimulation and response which leads to celiac disease.

The future of celiac disease treatment is wide open.

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