Trends in gluten research and its relationship to autoimmune and allergic diseases

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Gluten is a protein found in certain grains, and causes an autoimmune response in celiac disease patients. Although the subject of considerable research, gluten research foci and future directions are largely unknown. Methods The MEDLINE search tool was used to evaluate research trends. For perspective, yearly publications on gluten and other celiac disease reactive proteins were compared to food allergy proteins research. Then the relationship of gluten publications to affiliated keywords was determined. The affiliated keywords belonged to one of several groups: grains, vitamins and minerals, interaction, autoimmunity, genetics, or enzymes. The yearly number of publications in the peer-reviewed medical literature was determined for each relationship from years 1960–2013. The relationships were graphed, and linear regression analysis was used to determine the rate of change in publications per year, and the coefficient of determination. Results Among celiac disease reactive proteins (gluten, gliadin, and glutenin) and selected food allergy proteins (ovalbumin, lysozyme, ovomucoid, and Ara h), gluten showed the greatest rate of increase in published medical research (+20.01 studies/year since 1996, r2=0.97). Additionally, there were sharp increases in the rate of gluten research publications per year in association with keywords ‘autoimmunity’ (+7.69 studies/year since 1997), ‘wheat’ (+6.08 studies/year since 1999), and ‘transglutaminase’ enzyme (+5.05 studies/year since 1995). The longest running moderate trend was research on ‘gluten’ and ‘antibodies’ (+2.50 studies/year, r2=0.92 since 1971). Conclusions Research on gluten as a reactive protein is of rapidly growing interest in the medical literature. MEDLINE is helpful to determine foci and future directions.