Letter To The Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Nov 26, 2019; 7(22): 3912-3914
Published online Nov 26, 2019. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v7.i22.3912
Microbial transglutaminase should be considered as an environmental inducer of celiac disease
Aaron Lerner, Torsten Matthias
Aaron Lerner, Torsten Matthias, AESKU.KIPP Institute, Wendelsheim 55234, Germany
Author contributions: Lerner A and Matthias T wrote the letter.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Aaron Lerner, MD, Academic Research, Associate Professor, Chief Scientist, AESKU.KIPP Institute, Mikroforum Ring 2, Wendelsheim 55234, Germany. aaronlerner1948@gmail.com
Fax: +49-6734-96222222
Received: June 4, 2019
Peer-review started: June 6, 2019
First decision: August 1, 2019
Revised: October 9, 2019
Accepted: October 15, 2019
Article in press: October 15, 2019
Published online: November 26, 2019
Core Tip

Core tip: Recently, various food additives were suspected to trigger autoimmunity, including celiac disease (CD). Microbial transglutaminase (mTG), a heavily used one that imitates functionally the autoantigen of CD is a prime environmental candidate to induce the disease. The enzyme increases gliadin uptake, is transported in a trans-epithelial way, has anti- phagocytic activity, enhances intestinal permeability and creates luminal resistant isopeptide bonds. Its gliadin cross-linked complexes are immunogenic and reflect the degree of intestinal injury in CD patients. The present letter updates and explains why the protein linker, mTG, is beneficial to food industries but a caveat to public health.