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The Antigliadin-Synapsin Binding Experiment

 

 

I love this experiment.   Seriously, I gasped, jumped up and paced around my house frantically before I even finished reading it.  And I wrote to Dr. Alaedini and told him so.  That's how geeky I am.

I want people to understand it because it's so simple and elegant, and the results underly ALL the assertions I make in ALL my hypotheses.

 

 

Since most people aren't science nerds, here's my summary/translation:

 

Hypothesis:

There is evidence that gluten intolerance causes neurological problems.   Since gluten antibodies bind to intestinal cells to produce the damage and symptoms of celiac disease, they should bind to proteins in the brain to produce behavioral effects.

 

Materials: 

Some brain tissue and a mixture of radioactively labeled gluten antibodies.

A lab full of high tech machines to analyze the results.

 

Method: 

Mix the antibodies with the tissue, wait a while, wash off the excess and then look for radioactive traces on the brain tissue.

Filter/separate the radiolabeled complexes and analyze.

 

Results:

 

Only IgG antibodies adhered to the brain tissue, Not IgA.

Not all the IgG antibodies adhered to the brain tissue.

The binding site is a protein called synapsin I.

 

They then looked for evidence in patients and found antigliadin-synapsin complexes in their blood.

 

Conclusion

This experiment shows that a subset of the IgG isotype gluten antibodies indeed bind to proteins in the brain.  This portion of the IgG antibodies bind to the Synapsin I protein, and these complexes appear in human patients.   Evidence shows that Synapsin I is involved with neurotransmitter transport so these results are consistent with and provide a possible mechanism for neurological impairment caused by gluten intolerance.

 

 

 

Here's the links in case you're a dork and dying to read it now-

 

Immune cross-reactivity in celiac disease: anti-gliadin antibodies bind to neuronal synapsin I.

Alaedini A, Okamoto H, Briani C, Wollenberg K, Shill HA, Bushara KO, Sander HW, Green PH, Hallett M, Latov N. 

J Immunol. 2007 May 15;178(10):6590-5.    PubMed   Free full text

 

 

 

For complete disclosure-  these results are all I know for sure about gluten mediated neurological dysfunction.   EVERYTHING else I claim is extrapolation based on what I believe to be the natural consequences of this one finding.  

 
 

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