Tissue transglutaminase is an enzyme that catalyzes covalent cross-linking of primary amines or proteins, which is an important role in the small intestine inflammation of celiac disease patients.  This enzyme increases binding of gluten proteins, such as gliadin, with the HLA-DQ2 or HLA-DQ8 genes, which are responsible for introducing these proteins to T cells that cause inflammation of the intestine.  A possible method for preventing this cascade of events could be by using blocking peptides that bind gliadin, preventing the cross-linking between gliadin and tTG.  Four peptides were designed for this purpose and successfully synthesized by the method of solid phase peptide synthesis, with the following amino acid sequences: WHWRNPDFWYLKW, WHWRNPDFWYL, WGWRNPDFWYLK, WHGRNPDFWYLK.  An enzyme assay will be done to evaluate the reduction in tTG activity due to the blocking effects of the designed peptides.

Solid phase peptide synthesis of blocking peptides designed for blocking tissue transglutaminase cross-linking in celiac disease

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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