Pullman, Washington
April 23, 2008
Washington State University researcher Diter von Wettstein
has been awarded a four-year, $837,000 grant from the
National Institutes of Health
to further his work on developing wheat varieties safe to eat
for people who have Celiac disease.
Celiac disease is a genetic digestive disease and autoimmune
disorder that damages the small intestine and interferes with
absorption of nutrients from food. Symptoms are broad, ranging
from cramps and diarrhea to malnutrition. The disease is
triggered by consumption of gluten, a protein found in wheat,
barley and rye.
Currently, the only treatment for people who have Celiac disease
is to adopt a gluten-free diet, eliminating all wheat, rye and
barley-based foods. Making such a diet more difficult, gluten is
also used as a filler or binder in many additional food and
non-food items, such as deli-meats, licorice, medicines,
vitamins and even the adhesive on stamps and envelopes.
“Medical experts at the National Institutes of Health have
declared urgency in dealing with the most food-sensitive
intestinal condition in humans, and require faster and more
decisive methods such as transgenic breeding,” said Von
Wettstein.
Von Wettstein and his team have discovered a fully viable,
lysine-rich mutant which lacks gliadin-type proteins in barley,
showing the way to make Celiac-safe wheat. Lysine is an amino
acid essential for an optimal diet, but typically deficient in
wheat.
His team has partnered with Arcadia Biosciences, a biotech
company based in Seattle to identify specific mutations in genes
affecting the gliadin-type prolamins in gluten protein.
Specifically, it is the gliadins that cannot be digested and
eventually cross the intestinal wall, causing the damaging
T-cell response to the intestinal lining. Fortunately, it has
been shown that eliminating the gliadins does not compromise
wheat’s baking qualities.
“Creating new cultivars of wheat, arguably the most important
crop grown, having increased lysine and lacking gliadins will be
of tremendous benefit not only for sufferers of Celiac disease,
but for all consumers of wheat and wheat products,” said Von
Wettstein.
Von Wettstein holds the R.A. Nilan Distinguished Professorship
in WSU’s Department of Crop and Soil Science and is a member of
the National Academy of Sciences.
For more information about Celiac disease, visit
www.celiac.org, the Web site
of the Celiac Disease Foundation. |
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