Characteristics and Immunogenicity of Gluten Peptides in Enzyme-Treated and -Untreated Beers for Celiac Patients

The peptidomes from the literature of 24 prolyl-endopeptidase-treated beers during fermentation, declared gluten-free, and 13 untreated beers have been characterised and subjected to an extensive study to investigate their safety for celiac patients. The analysis contains 1996 gluten peptides, ascribed to the treated beers, and 1804 to the untreated beers. The prolyl-endopeptidase-untreated malt beers are hazardous for celiac patients. Peptides of most of these beers showed matches with complete celiac immunogenic motifs, and an additional 28% of the peptides have partial matches with complete immunogenic motifs. On the other hand, after the enzyme treatment during fermentation no celiac hazardous gluten peptides are identified in the treated beers. Due to partial matches with complete celiac immunogenic motifs, 11% potentially hazardous gluten peptides are still identified in the treated beers. Only a maximum of 17% of these peptides can be detected by ELISA analysis. A mass spectrometry analysis or the recently developed method based on G12/A1 monoclonal antibody lateral flow immunochromatographic assay seems necessary to thoroughly reveal the potential risk of the treated beers. The actual immune response of treated beer, described in the literature by the response of the serum antibodies of celiac disease (CD)-active patients and by in vitro immune response, could not be related to the presence of known (partial) CD-immunogenic motifs in the gluten peptides.