Mikuni Motoyama, Postdoctoral Researcher Department of Neuropsychiatry, received the Encouragement Award at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Department of Immunology

Japanese Department of Immunology

Clinical characteristics of gluten intolerance and the usefulness of anti-gliadin IgG antibodies

Gluten intolerance is a group of mental and physical symptoms that manifest when gluten is consumed, including abdominal pain, diarrhea, headache, depression, anxiety, and fatigue. However, diagnostic criteria have yet to be established, and much remains unknown about the condition. In recent years, a link between gluten and various psychiatric disorders has been reported, and anti-gliadin IgG antibodies, a gluten-related antibody, are establishing themselves as a biomarker, but their usefulness has not yet been verified. Hyogo Medical University Hospital established a gluten-specific outpatient clinic in 2020, where they have been providing treatment and research for gluten intolerance. In this study, we objectively evaluated patients at the gluten-specific outpatient clinic using anti-gliadin IgG and examined their clinical characteristics.

We measured serum anti-gliadin IgG antibodies and assessed psychiatric and physical symptoms, quality of life, and other factors in 45 gluten-intolerant patients and 83 healthy controls who visited the gluten specialist clinic Hyogo Medical University Hospital between 2020 and 2023. This study was approved by Hyogo Medical University Medicine Ethics Committee (No. 3412), and written consent was obtained from the subjects. Results of this study showed that 33.3% of gluten-intolerant patients and 13.3% of healthy controls tested positive for anti-gliadin IgG antibodies, with a significantly higher positive rate in gluten-intolerant patients compared with healthy controls. The sensitivity and specificity of anti-gliadin IgG antibodies as a marker of gluten intolerance were 33.3% and 86.7%, respectively. Compared with healthy controls, gluten-intolerant patients had lower quality of life, higher scores on scales for depression, anxiety, and physical symptoms, and lower quality of life for abdominal symptoms, which are commonly associated with gluten intolerance.

Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (24K18675) "Elucidating the pathogenesis of gluten intolerance, establishing medical diagnostic criteria, and developing treatments"