NIH grant funds effort to develop wheat safe for celiac disease patients
Thanks to the research of Diter von Wettstein and a new grant of nearly $1 million from the National Institutes of Health, millions of people around the world suffering from celiac disease have new reasons for hope.
Dr. von Wettstein, who is R.A. Nilan Distinguished Professor in the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences and the School of Molecular Biosciences at Washington State University, will use the four-year, $837,000 NSF grant to advance his research to develop wheat varieties safe to eat by people with celiac disease.
Genetic digestive disease wreaks havoc
Celiac disease is a genetic digestive disease and autoimmune disorder that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. Symptoms range from cramps and diarrhea to malnutrition and other serious illnesses, such as diabetes. The disease is triggered by consumption of gluten proteins, found in wheat, barley, and rye.
Currently, the only treatment 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.
NIH has declared urgency
"Medical experts at the National Institutes of Health have declared urgency in dealing with celiac disease, the most common food-sensitive intestinal condition in humans, and require faster and more decisive methods such as transgenic breeding, in which genes are transferred from different species, and non-transgenic TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions In Genomes)," Dr. von Wettstein said.
Dr. von Wettstein, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and his team have discovered a fully viable, lysine-rich barley mutant that lacks the gliadin-type and low-molecular-weight glutenin type proteins that trigger celiac disease. But this barley mutant retains high-molecular-weight glutenins, recently shown to be solely responsible for dough elasticity and excellent baking quality. The task for Dr. von Wettstein is to produce a similar wheat grain, using genetic methods to remove the celiac-causing gliadins and low-molecular glutenins. As an added benefit, the resulting grain will contain more lysine, an amino acid essential for an optimal diet but typically deficient in wheat.
The research team has partnered with Seattle-based biotechnology company Arcadia Biosciences to screen large populations of wheat mutants by TILLING, in order to identify gene mutations that affect the celiac-triggering protein types.
Diter von Wettstein's research
School of Molecular Biosciences
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