The discovery of a coeliac disease specific antigen could offer a new route for treatment of the condition. Dr Robert Anderson and his colleagues at the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford have identified a peptide in wheat that elicits a specific immune response in people with coeliac disease.

If this immune response could be blocked, then the need to stick to a gluten free diet could become obsolete (Nature Medicine 2000;6:337-42).

Dr Anderson, a gastroenterologist, and his team set out to find the toxic part of the gluten molecule. It is already known that gluten can be separated into …