Celiac Disease (CD) is now recognized as a worldwide problem, considerably affecting the quality-of-life of its patients. Given its high prevalence and lack of alternative therapeutical means to a gluten-free diet (GFD), new solutions are needed.
Polyphenolic compounds (PC) are perhaps the most important non-nutrient bioactive group in the human diet. Widely found in fruits, vegetables, grains, spices, herbs and derived foods and beverages, early reports suggested that these compounds were anti-nutritional components of plants. Nowadays, epidemiological, clinical and nutritional studies strongly support that PC have a strong potential in the enhancement of human health by changing disease risk profiles through their ability to modulate various biological pathways. Different molecular and cellular targets of dietary polyphenols have already been identified and their biological implication in a context of cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic inflammation and metabolic disorders has been examined in recent researches. Nevertheless, the significance of food PC in CD onset and progression remains largely unknown. Therefore, this project aims to characterize the chemical structure of dietary polyphenols, their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities and the underlying molecular mechanisms of their involvement in CD mitigation. An in-depth understanding of the implication of dietary PC in regulating CD pathogenesis is of substantial relevance and a prerequisite to develop an effective nutritional intervention and alternative prevention strategy to a GFD based on innovative PC-rich functional food formulations.
Herein, PC from diet (apple, green tea, red grapes, elderberries) or within by-products from food industries (e.g. wine and cork) will be isolated and screened, in vitro, on a human cell line model and on gluten-specific T-cells isolated from the peripheral blood of CD patients for their ability to modulate oxidative damage and intestinal inflammatory immune reactions triggered by bioactive gluten peptides. These will be generated upon in vitro gastrointestinal digestion of wheat gluten proteins and fractionated by preparative HPLC. This data will be corroborated in vivo using a CD transgenic mice that will be fed with a gluten-containing diet supplemented with PC extracts and pure compounds. It is also a goal to fully characterize, in vitro and in silico, the interaction of food PC with gluten bioactive peptides with particular interest in its driving forces and dependence on both structural and environmental parameters. In general, this project intends to promote high level research in some societal challenges of the Horizon 2020 program such as health, well-being and sustainable agriculture. To attend that, a multidisciplinary and specialized team was build-up involving the PI research group, some national institutes and companies and an international organization.