Researchers at the University of California may have discovered a way to secure wheat and improve the overall quality of gluten-free bread for people with celiac disease.
Wheat contains proteins called gliadins and glutennin which are important to make the dough strong and elastic, but they also contain some parts (called Eptops) that can trigger celiac disease in some people. A person can affect the amount and length of exposure to these harmful appitops whether they develop celiac disease.
Dr. George Dabkovski and Dr. A research team led by Venjun Zhang in a new prepromrit, found that by removing specific sections of wheat DNA, they can reduce these harmful appetops without negatively affecting the ability to make good wheat. A special deletion, called δgli-D2, removed the major harmful petopes, which not only made wheat safe for people with celiac disease, but also strengthened the dough. Δgli-D2 deletion did not affect wheat yield or protein content, making it a promising option for wheat production that is better for both baking and safe for people with risk of celiac disease.
Additionally, this new type of wheat can help reduce the number of people who develop celiac disease by reducing the amount of potentially harmful protein in their diet.
Dr. Dabkovski indicated that this is “the first step in a long project to gently reduce the amount of harmful ancetop in wheat. With these anterfits there are more than 50 proteins that are concentrated in nine areas of chromosomes of wheat. Using deletion and gene editing, we are “cleaning” each of these areas for the purpose of combining them in the near future.
The Celiac Disease Foundation provided a research grant to Dabkovski Lab to support the ongoing development of these celiac-safe wheat varieties. This funding will accelerate the manufacture of commercially viable wheat for bread and pasta which can be enjoyed by people with celiac disease. The investment of the foundation underlines the important importance of advancing research that can change the lives of millions of people affected by this chronic autoimmune disease.
Merlin Galer, CEO of the Celiac Disease Foundation, said, “We are incredibly excited about the progress being made towards the production of celiac-safe wheat, but we believe that there is still a lot of research ahead of us.” “While we can be far from developing commercially viable wheat strains that are actually safe for people with celiac disease, celiac disease is committed to investing in Foundation Groundbreaking Research that is committed to life for our community Have the ability to significantly improve quality. ”
Read more at: Https://www.biorxiv.org/Content/10.1101/2024.07.19.604379v1
It is a August 2024 blog post from Meghan Donley, MS, RD, Director of Health Communications at Celiac Disease Foundation. The Celiac Disease Foundation is a major global patient advocacy organization committed to expedite a treatment for diagnosis, treatment and celiac disease. Our mission is to improve the health and welfare of millions of persons around the world affected by this genetic autoimmune disease. Leam more www.celiac.org,
