Antibodies to wheat proteins in schizophrenia: relationship or coincidence?

Abstract

Preliminary results were presented (Hekkens, 1978) about the level of antibodies to gliadin in sera of patients with schizophrenia. The idea behind the measuring of gliadin antibodies was that if gliadin or its breakdown products can affect the brain in schizophrenia (Dohan et al. , 1969), then those peptides have to pass more or less intact through the intestinal wall. We knew already that mucosal damage such as occurs in coeliac disease, gives rise to an increased level of antibodies against gliadin in the serum of these patients. If schizophrenia and coeliac disease are associated, and both are a consequence of the passage of gliadin or its breakdown products through the intestinal wall, one could expect that in schizophrenie patients on a diet including wheat the gliadin antibody level would be increased also. Our preliminary results indieated that this was true for only a few of the schizophrenie patients studied. This could me an that there are two groups of patients, one with an increased perme ability for gliadin and with a high antigliadin titre, the other with a low permeability and having a low titre. This phenomenon is similar to that described in Chapter 13 by Ashkenazi et al., in the re action of lymphocytes from psychotie patients. They measured a lymphokine-inducing effect of a gliadin fraction toxie to coeliac patients in only some of the schizophrenie and psychotie individuals. We therefore wanted to investigate a larger group of patients and to compare them with non-schizophrenie patients from the same psychiatrie hospitalliving under the same conditions. 125G. Hemmings (ed.), Biochemistry of Schizophrenia and Addiction

Food antibodies in acute psychoses

“…One possibility is that some schizophrenics have an increased gastrointestinal uptake of food macromolecules in a form in which their immunogenicity is retained. Such an explanation would be consistent with a possible association between malabsorption and schizophrenia (Baldwin, 1979) and studies suggesting altered gut permeability to dietary antigens in schizophrenics (Hekkens et al 1980) and long-stay psychiatric patients in general (Wood et al 1984). Such results could be regarded as providing partial support for Dohan's hypothesis of an impairment of the gastrointestinal barrier system in schizophrenics.…”

“…A number of investigators have found that psychiatric patients including schizophrenics have antibodies to wheat or gliadin more commonly than controls (Dohan et al 1972;Mascord et al 1978;Hekkens et al 1980;Sugerman et al 1982). Furthermore, in some of these studies schizophrenics have been found to have a higher prevalence, or higher titres, of antibodies to rye (Hekkens et al 1980;Sugerman et al 1982), egg-white, barley, chicken (Sugerman et al 1982), cow's milk (Sugerman et al 1982;Kinnell et al 1982), and beef or bovine gammaglobulin (Sugerman et al 1982;Kinnell et al 1982). A mixed sample of psychiatric patients had more frequent antibodies than controls to barley, lentil, haricot bean, soya bean and rice (Mascord et al 1978).…”

Gluten Psychosis: Confirmation of a New Clinical Entity

“…However, we still know relatively little about which specific genes or environmental factors are involved and how these factors interact and actually cause psychotic symptoms [ 8 ]. Several studies suggested a relationship between gluten and psychosis [ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ] or other neuro-psychiatric disorders [ 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ]; however, it remains a highly debated and controversial topic that requires well-designed prospective studies to establish the real role of gluten as a triggering factor in these diseases [ 2 , 27 ].…”

Entry of Peptides of Dietary Origin into the Circulation

“…The extent of this passage increases in various diseases and in malnutrition (Walker, 1981;Hekkens, 1978;Hekkens et al, 1980;Finn and Cohen, 1978;Mascord et al, 1978;Hemmings, 1978;Hemmings and Williams, 1978;Gardner, 1983b). Measurable amounts of inert particles such as latex spheres of 1 I.L diameter also can cross healthy intestine; pinocytosis and passage across the M-cells of Peyer's patches appear to be involved.…”