Association of gliadin antibodies, HLA alleles, and schizophrenia in Cuban population patients

• Main Authors: José A. Galván, Hanlet Camacho, William W. Eaton, Marcelo Nazabal, María E. Fernández de Cossio, Isabel Guillen, Seidy Pedroso, Raúl Mendoza, Annia Ferrer, Juan Roca, Jesús Benitez, Lidia Inés Novoa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidad Católica de Oriente 2016-05-01
• Series: Bionatura
• Subjects: Celiac disease; gliadin antibodies; tissue transglutaminase antibodies; HLA; schizophrenia; Cuba.
• Online Access: http://revistabionatura.com/hla-alleles-and-schizophrenia-.html

Introduction: Several lines of evidence have suggested an interesting link between gluten ingestion and schizophrenia. For example, increased levels of gliadin and transglutaminase antibodies have been observed in patients with schizophrenia. Methods: To verify these observations we compared the prevalence of gliadin and transglutaminse antibodies, as well as the presence of the HLA alleles, HLA DQA1*0501-DQB1*02 (DQ2) and HLA-DQA1*0301-DQB1*0302 (DQ8), among patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. A total of 108 patients with schizophrenia and 60 healthy controls were evaluated. Gliadin antibodies were determined by a visual semiquantitative assay and tissue transglutaminase antibodies were determined both by one-step immunochromatografic assay and ELISA. HLA typing was performed by PCR amplification using sequence-specific primers for each allele. Results: We found a strong association between the presence of gliadin antibodies and schizophrenia (OR 3.488; 95% CI, 1.43-8.44). However, tissue transglutaminase antibodies were not detected in either group neither by immunochromatograpic or ELISA. No significant association was found for the DQ2 or DQ8 heterodimer and the disease, but a significant positive association between schizophrenia and HLA alleles DQA1*0301 and DQB1*02 was present (OR = 2.80; 95% CI, 1.27-6.17, and OR = 2.37, 95% CI, 1.24-4.53, respectively). Conclusions: The present study showed that the presence of gliadin antibodies was not correlated with the presence of HLA DQA1*0301 or DQB1*02 alleles within the group of patients with schizophrenia. Our study replicates the findings that anti-gliadin antibodies are associated with schizophrenia but also suggests that the presence of these antibodies and the HLA alleles DQB1*02 and DQA1*0301 are independently associated with susceptibility to schizophrenia.