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Monococcum wheat (einkorn) and wheat allergy

by luciano

The research reported in the summary highlighted the absence of ω-5 gliadin in the monococcum wheat responsible for wheat allergy: another important characteristic of the monococcum wheat!

Study on the Immunoreactivity of Triticum monococcum (Einkorn) Wheat in Patients with Wheat-Dependent Exercise-Induced Anaphylaxis for the Production of Hypoallergenic Foods. Carla Lombardo, Michela Bolla Roberto Chignola Gianenrico Senna Giacomo Rossin Beatrice Caruso, Carlo Tomelleri Daniela Cecconi Andrea Brandolini Gianni Zoccatelli. Cite This:J. Agric. Food Chem.201563378299-8306. Publication Date:September 2, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.5b02648 Copyright © 2015 American Chemical Society Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Abstract
“Wheat [Triticum aestivum (T.a.)] ingestion can cause a specific allergic reaction, which is called wheat-dependent exercise-induced anaphylaxis (WDEIA). The major allergen involved is ω-5 gliadin, a gluten protein coded by genes located on the B genome. Our aim was to study the immunoreactivity of proteins in Triticum monococcum (einkorn, T.m.), a diploid ancestral wheat lacking B chromosomes, for possible use in the production of hypoallergenic foods. A total of 14 patients with a clear history of WDEIA and specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) to ω-5 gliadin were enrolled. Skin prick test (SPT) with a commercial wheat extract and an in-house T.a. gluten diagnostic solution tested positive for 43 and 100% of the cases, respectively. No reactivity in patients tested with solutions prepared from four T.m. accessions was observed. The immunoblotting of T.m. gluten proteins performed with the sera of patients showed different IgE-binding profiles with respect to T.a., confirming the absence of ω-5 gliadin. A general lower immunoreactivity of T.m. gluten proteins with scarce cross-reactivity to ω-5 gliadin epitopes was assessed by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Given the absence of reactivity by SPT and the limited cross-reactivity with ω-5 gliadin, T.m. might represent a potential candidate in the production of hypoallergenic bakery products for patients sensitized to ω-5 gliadin. Further analyses need to be carried out regarding its safety”.

Einkorn, emmer and durum wheat

by luciano

Einkorn, emmer and durum wheat: they do not have the “33mer” fraction considered the most active in activating the adverse response of the immune system in celiac subjects. Also for this reason they are the most suitable genotypes for the researches whose aim is to “detoxify” the flours or to intervene with particular enzymes to hydrolyse the “toxic peptides”, however present; they are also more suitable for non-celiac gluten sensitive subjects.

“Quantitation of the immunodominant 33-mer peptide from α-gliadin in wheat flours by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry.

Kathrin Schalk , Christina Lang , Herbert Wieser , Peter Koehler  & Katharina Anne Scherf. Scientific Reports volume 7, Article number: 45092 (2017)

Abstract

Coeliac disease (CD) is triggered by the ingestion of gluten proteins from wheat, rye, and barley. The 33-mer peptide from α2-gliadin has frequently been described as the most important CD-immunogenic sequence within gluten. However, from more than 890 published amino acid sequences of α-gliadins, only 19 sequences contain the 33-mer. In order to make a precise assessment of the importance of the 33-mer, it is necessary to elucidate which wheat species and cultivars contain the peptide and at which concentrations. This paper presents the development of a stable isotope dilution assay followed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry to quantitate the 33-mer in flours of 23 hexaploid modern and 15 old common (bread) wheat as well as two spelt cultivars. All flours contained the 33-mer peptide at levels ranging from 91–603 μg/g flour. In contrast, the 33-mer was absent (<limit of detection) from tetra- and diploid species (durum wheat, emmer, einkorn), most likely because of the absence of the D-genome, which encodes α2-gliadins. Due to the presence of the 33-mer in all common wheat and spelt flours analysed here, the special focus in the literature on this most immunodominant peptide seems to be justified……Omissis…..

Analysis of durum wheat, emmer and einkorn

The 33-mer peptide was also analysed in two durum wheat and two emmer cultivars (genome AABB) as well as two diploid einkorn cultivars (genome AA) (Table 1). In each of these wheat species, the 33-mer was not detected (<LOD). In comparison to hexaploid common wheat, durum wheat, emmer, and einkorn do not contain the D-genome, which originated from hybridisation of T. turgidum dicoccum (genome AABB) with Aegilops tauschii (genome DD)36. The absence of the 33-mer peptide can be explained by the fact that this peptide is encoded by genes located in the Gli-2 locus on chromosome 6D, which is missing in durum wheat, emmer, and einkorn. Studies by Molberg et al. showed clear variations in intestinal T-cell responses between common wheat and tetra- or diploid species due to different degrees of T-cell immunoreactivity between the gluten proteins encoded on the A-, B-, and D-genome. Einkorn cultivars were only recognized by DQ2.5-glia-α1a-specific T-cell clones, but not by DQ2.5-glia-α1b- and DQ2.5-glia-α2-specific T-cell clones. Emmer and durum wheat cultivars were all recognized by DQ2.5-glia-α1a-specific T-cell clones, but only two out of four emmer cultivars and three out of ten durum wheat cultivars activated DQ2.5-glia-α1b- and DQ2.5-glia-α2-specific T-cell clones37. Consistent with our results, Prandi et al.38 found that the 33-mer was not present in durum wheat. As a consequence, this peptide was used as a marker peptide to identify the presence of common wheat in durum wheat flours. One durum wheat cultivar was also analysed by van den Broeck et al.33 and the 33-mer peptide was not detected either”. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.it

 

Monococcum wheat (einkorn) and the market offer

by luciano

Scientific research has long highlighted the peculiar characteristics of the monococcum wheat reported in (https://glutenlight.eu/2019/03/11/il-grano-monococco/) and can be summarized as follows:

  1. High digestibility of gluten
  2. High tolerability in relation to gastro-intestinal disorders (celiac disease excluded)
  3. High mineral and vitamin content
  4. High availability of bioactive components
  5. A different ratio between the components of starch sugar with a prevalence of slow absorption.

Monococcum wheat has, for some time, been the focus of producers-transformers and consumers. The offer, especially of flour, as well as of products is constantly increasing. The products offered, however, do not have, except in rare cases, complete traceability starting from the field to the table. On the flour packages it is rare to find indications regarding the variety of wheat from which it derives; on the final products we find the mandatory ingredients by law but, rarely, the preparation method. The speech, however, applies to all grains both ancient and modern. The greater attention to the monococcum wheat (einkorn) is due to the evocative force of its ancestral origin and to its characteristics of high digestibility, tolerability and healthy contents.

The variety of wheat used and the indicators that inform us about the quantity and “strength” of gluten would be particularly valuable to be able to include more digestible products in our diet when needed. Gluten, as it is formed during water and flour are kneaded, cannot be digested by our intestines, it must first be “broken” by digestive enzymes into very small “fragments”. In this way other digestive enzymes in the intestine will complete the work in order to make the gluten components “amino acids” assimilable. The lower amount of gluten and less strength will sometimes make our task much easier. Products made with monococcoum wheat flour (einkorn) and generally those made with “ancient grains” are advertised as “very digestible” or “highly digestible”. Both terms are very generic since they can present strong differences in terms of gluten quantity and “gluten strength”. Recently I bought two different monococcum wheat flours of which I pointed out the amount of gluten: one has a percentage of dry gluten of 9.6% the other of 17.1%! Same thing with the strength of gluten whose index in one case was 33 in another 71!These indicators are a first valid help that we could have to better balance, with the support of the doctor, our diet. It should also be remembered that the final digestibility of the product made with flours, whatever they may be, is also greatly influenced by the way in which the products are prepared: just think of the considerable contribution to digestibility that we can obtain by using sourdough, but this information is also generally absent or present in an ambiguous way or without specification of which flour was used: “… made with sour dough”. https://glutenlight.eu/2019/05/08/la-fermentazione-della-pasta-acida-ii-parte/.

Tolerability of the monococcum wheat (einkorn)

by luciano

A peculiar characteristic of this cereal is the high food tolerability. In the last few years numerous experimental evidences of the reduced toxicity of the monococcus wheat prolamins have been obtained. In particular, the prolamins of this cereal are not able to induce lesions in the intestinal mucosa of celiac patients (Auricchio et al., 1982; De Vincenzi et al., 1995; 1996) and to agglutinate K562 (S) cells, a in vitro tests strongly correlated with the “toxicity” of the prolaminic peptides. Furthermore, T. monococcum accessions of immuno-dominant sequences able to stimulate T lymphocytes have been identified (Molberg et al., 2005; Spaenij-Dekking et al., 2005; Zanini et al., 2013). Recently, Gianfrani et al. (2012) reported the results of a study on two monococcus wheat genotypes, Monlis and ID331, compared with the variety of tender wheat Sagittarius. However, while the proliferates of Sagittarius and Monlis, a variety of monococcus wheat free of ω-gliadins, are able to promote the proliferation of enterocytes in the crypts of the mucous membranes of celiac patients and to induce the synthesis of interliquine 15 (IL- 15) in intestinal villi enterocytes, ID321 prolamins, a monococcus wheat line containing only one ω-gliadin, show no effect. The results suggest that Monlis is able to activate innate immunity and promote the synthesis of interleukin 15 (IL-15), a key molecule in the induction of adaptive immunity, while ID331 does not seem capable of eliciting this type of immune response. All this is in agreement with the observation that the prolamins of the Monlis variety and other monococcus wheat genotypes without ω-gliadin behave like the prolamins of soft wheat in their ability to agglutinate K562 (S) cells and alter the intestinal epithelium. These rare toxic genotypes of monococcus wheat (<2%) differ from the others due to the peculiarity of not producing ω-gliadins, in which sequences able to counteract the toxicity of the other prolamins seem to be present. Although monococcus wheat proteins show reduced cytoxicity towards intestinal cells, the presence of immune-dominant epitopes precludes their use in the celiac diet.On the other hand, considering that the incidence and severity of celiac disease depends on the quantity and the harmfulness of the prolamins and that some monococcus wheat genotypes have a high bread making quality coupled with absence of cytotoxicity and reduced immunogenicity, it is expected that use of monococcus flours in the diet of the general population, in which there is a high percentage of individuals genetically predisposed to celiac disease but not yet celiac, can help to contain the spread of this form of food intolerance. This suggests that the monococcus wheat, recently reported in cultivation in Italy by researchers of the Council for Research and Experimentation in Agriculture (CRA) of Rome and San Angelo Lodigiano, will play an important role in the prevention of celiac disease, both directly in the form of bread and pasta both indirectly as a model species for the study of the role of innate immunity in the onset of celiac disease. FROM: The new frontiers of food technologies and the celiac disease Norberto Pogna, Laura Gazza (2013). Volume 212, 1 December 2016, Pages 537-542 Further confirmations were highlighted by the research: Protective effects of ID331 Triticum monococcum gliadin on in vitro models of the intestinal epithelium. Giuseppe Jacomino et al. 2016. Highlights: • ID331 gliadins do not enhance permeability and do not induce zonulin release. • ID331 gliadins do not trigger cytotoxicity or cytoskeleton reorganization. • ID331 gastrointestinal digestion releases ω (105-123) bioactive peptide. • ω (105-123) exerts a protective action against the toxicity induced by T. aestivum. Abstract A growing interest in developing new strategies due to coeliac disease. In the current study, we investigate the biological effects of ID331 Triticum monococcum gliadin-derived peptides in human Caco-2 intestinal epithelial cells. Triticum aestivum gliadin derived peptides were used as a positive control. The effects on epithelial permeability, zonulin release, viability, and cytoskeleton reorganization were investigated. Our findings confirmed that ID331 gliadin did not enhance permeability and did not induce zonulin release, cytotoxicity or cytoskeleton reorganization of Caco-2 cell monolayers. We also demonstrated that ID331 ω-gliadin and its derived peptide ω (105-123) exerted to protective action, mitigating the injury of Triticum aestivum gliadin on cell viability and cytoskeleton reorganization. These results may represent a new opportunity for the future development of innovative strategies to reduce gluten toxicity in the diet of patients with gluten intolerance.

Ancient wheat species and human health: Biochemical and clinical implications

by luciano

An important study that highlights the interesting characteristics of ancient varieties of wheat in relation, above all, to some widespread gastrointestinal diseases (“This manuscript reviews the nutritional value and health benefits of ancient wheats varieties, providing a summary of all in vitro, ex vivo, animal and human studies that have thus far been published.”)

Premise:
Ancient wheat species “Although there is no precise definition, it is generally accepted that ancient wheat has remained unchanged over the last hundred years. In contrast, modern species have been extensively modified and subject to cross-breeding in what is commonly referred to as the “Green Revolution”. This term was developed to refer to a set of research and technological transfer initiatives that occurred between the 1930s and the late 1960s. The Green Revolution was initiated by Strampelli, who was among the first, in Europe and in the World, to systematically apply Mendel’s laws to traits such as rust resistance, early flowering and maturity and short straw. As a consequence, Italian wheat production doubled, an achievement that during the fascist regime was referred to as the “Wheat Battle” (1925–1940) [10]. After the Second Word War, some of Strampelli’s wheat varieties were used as parents in breeding programmes in many countries in a phase of the Green Revolution, defined as Norman Borlaug’s Green Revolution. This phase was instrumental in the development of the high-yielding varieties [10]. Thereafter, during the 1960s, research was concentrated on improving the storage protein quality, thereby increasing the technological properties. Agronomists bred cultivars of maize, wheat, and rice that were generally referred to as “high-yielding varieties” based on a higher capacity for nitrogen-absorption than other varieties. High levels of nitrogen in the soils causes the lodging of wheat before harvest. Therefore, semi-dwarfing genes were bred to improve to reduce both lodging and the maturation cycle. The principle results of this revolution were the development of modern varieties characterized by higher yield, a reduced susceptibility to diseases and insects, an increased tolerance to environ- mental stresses, a homogeneous maturation (to optimize harvest) and a higher gluten content (to improve bread and pasta quality). Whilst these intensive breeding programs helped to increase production and techno- logical quality, a concomitant decrease in genetic variability as well as a gradual impoverishment of the nutritional and nutraceutical properties of the wheat occurred, mainly determined by the complete replacement of ancient local breeds with modern varieties.”

Some passages of the study help to focus the most significant evidences that, although referring to a limited number of researches, open interesting perspectives for a greater use of ancient grains in order to reduce the disorders deriving from the ingestion of gluten:
About monococcum wheat: “Compared with soft wheat, einkorn showed a lower content of both total and resistant starch (mean value: 655 vs 685 g/kg dry matter (DM) and 25.6 vs 30–88 g/kg DM respectively) [7]. However, the amount of amylose molecules, that are digested more slowly, was higher than the amount of amylopectin molecules, thereby lowering both glucose and insulin levels in the blood after meals [14] and maintaining satiety for longer periods [15]. By evaluating the average protein content, einkorn protein values were 59% higher than those of modern wheat [16], but the bread-manufacturing quality of storage proteins were poor, making it better suited to the preparation of cookies or pasta [17]. The comparative analysis of lipids and fatty acid composition in einkorn and soft wheat germ revealed a higher content of lipids (+50%) in einkorn, with a greater proportion of monounsat- urated fatty acids (+53%), and lower polyunsaturated (−8%) and saturated fatty acids (−21%) [16]. With respect to phytochemicals, einkorn showed the highest concentration of phytosterols and tocols (1054 and 57 μg/g DM respectively), but this difference was mostly marked in the HEALTHGRAIN dataset [12]. In addition, einkorn, khorasan wheat and emmer wheat cultivars showed the highest content of total carotenoids (2.26, 6.65 and 8.23 μg/g DM respectively) and lutein (7.28, 4.9 and 2.7 μg/g DM), the major carotenoid with respect to all the other species [18,19]. Of interest, several lines of einkorn showed lutein values from three to eight-fold higher than soft wheat and two-fold greater than those for durum wheat. Some authors suggested that the higher carotenoid content in einkorn-made products could be a result of lower processing losses, linked to lower lipoxygenase activity [7]. “

Although there is insufficient evidence to suggest that ancient wheat varieties prevent gluten-related disorders, several studies have shown that a diet based on less-immunoreactive wheat products, with fewer amounts and types of reactive prolamins and fructans, may help in the improvement of gastrointestinal and/or systemic symptoms of some auto-immune or chronic diseases (eg, irritable bowel syndrome, etc.) [34]. These less-immunoreactive varieties, like einkorn, may be good targets for slowing the development of disease in populations genetically predis- posed to celiac disease and other wheat sensitivities [42].

On the other hand, a subsequent paper investigating how in vitro gastro-intestinal digestion affects the immune toxic properties of gliadin from einkorn (compared to modern wheat), demonstrated that gliadin proteins of einkorn are sufficiently different from those of modern wheat, thereby determin- ing a lower immune toxicity following in vitro simulation of human digestion [40].

Although concrete functional benefits are difficult to ascertain from random individual human trials, since they are subject to differences and/or limitations in experimental design, participant number and participant characteristics in the case of parallel arm studies, results unanimously suggest that the consump- tion of products made with ancient wheat varieties ameliorate not only pro-inflammatory/anti-oxidant parameters (where investigated) but also glycaemic and lipid status. Ancient wheat species and human health: Biochemical and clinical implications. Stefano Benedettelli et altri. September 2017. (Available online at www.sciencedirect.com)

Note:
Lodging is the bending over of the stems near ground level of grain crops, which makes them very difficult to harvest, and can dramatically reduce yield.

 

Depeening
Ancient wheat species and human health