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The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7239 p328
8 March 2003

Related websites
NeuroImmunoModulation abstract (more)
Journal of Medicinal Chemistry (more)

Peptide shows promise as coeliac disease treatment

Researchers have identified a peptide that might be considered as a treatment for refractory coeliac disease.

They investigated a-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (a-MSH), a naturally occurring peptide thought to be involved in inflammatory reactions and known to have anti-inflammatory activity.

The in vitro study used human coeliac mucosa cells collected from 53 adult coeliac patients (34 untreated and 19 on a gluten-free diet) and 14 normal subjects.

Results confirmed the presence of natural a-MSH in the mucosa and suggested a local reaction of the molecule to control the inflammatory response elicited by gliadin — the subfraction of gluten that acts as a toxin in coeliac disease.

A synthetic form of a-MSH has now been produced by the American company Zengen Inc. Further investigations showed that release of interleukin-6 (a lymphokine that stimulates the inflammatory response) from gliadin-stimulated duodenal mucosa was inhibited by synthetic a-MSH (NeuroImmunoModulation 2002;10:208).

"These positive results will be used to guide further advancements toward clinical use of the molecules," said James Lipton, study investigator and director of Zengen.

Candida infection Zengen has also published details of another peptide, derived from a–MSH, with potent activity against Candida albicans. Researchers modified the naturally occurring molecule to enhance activity against the yeast. In the reported structure-activity study, the team developed several compounds that had greater candidacidal activity than a–MSH. One particular peptide killed 99.7 per cent of candida cells over repeated experiments (Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 2003;46:850).