Celiac disease develops in genetically predisposed individuals as the result of an inappropriate intestinal immune response to dietary
gluten proteins. T cells present in the intestine of celiac patients recognize
gluten peptides in the context of HLA-DQ2 or -DQ8 molecules. Notably, T-cell recognition is increased after these
peptides have been deamidated by the
enzyme transglutaminase 2. Several
T-cell epitopes of
gluten exist, and most of these
epitopes derive from the alcohol-soluble
gliadin fraction. For some of these
epitopes, specific T cells can be isolated from intestinal biopsies from nearly all patients, whereas for others, T-cell reactivity could be demonstrated in only a few patients. One reason for this observation could be that the rate of
transglutaminase 2 (TG2)-mediated deamidation significantly differs between these
peptides, resulting in different amounts of
epitopes generated in vivo. In this study, we established a quantitative, mass spectrometry-based approach to measure the kinetics of TG2-mediated deamidation of
gliadin-derived, DQ2-restricted
epitopes. Our results demonstrate large variations in the degree of deamidation between different
peptides and also between individual
glutamine residues within each
peptide. In general,
alpha-gliadin derived
epitopes that are frequently recognized by patient T cells showed a significant higher level of deamidation compared to the majority of
epitopes from gamma-
gliadin that are less frequently recognized. The degree of deamidation of individual residues within a
peptide also seems to influence whether some
epitopes are better recognized in context of DO2 or DQ8. Thus, the rate of deamidation by TG2 appears to be
a factor of importance for the T-cell response to
gluten in
celiac disease.