Professional Medicine

Na Tian PERIO 14 recently won second prize for her poster presentation at the Second Annual Translational Research Symposium on May 26. Her poster was titled, “Discovery of Natural Gluten-Degrading Enzymes in the Oral Cavity: Novel Therapeutic Perspectives for Celiac Disease.” Tian has received prior awards for another research poster titled, “Proteolytic Degradation of Immunogenic 33-mer and 26-mer Gliadin-Derived Peptides by Oral Bacteria Reduces Tissue Transglutaminase Recognition In Vitro.” The poster she presented at the Translation Research Symposium was new work, which compared to the last poster was more systemic and comprehensive.   Said Tian, “In this research, we isolated bacteria from the oral cavity, which have enzymes able to degrade gliadin and gliadin-derived immunogenic peptides at specific sites. We presented evidence that this degradation reduces the recognition of these peptides by transglutaminase 2, which is an indication for gluten epitope neutralization. The natural source of these bacteria and their enzymes make them attractive candidates to be pursued as novel therapeutics for celiac disease.”   Associate Professor Dr. Eva Helmerhorst served as Tian’s mentor and the Principal Investigator of this research. Additional contributors include: Dr. Guoxian Wei, Maram Zamakhchari, and Dr. Frank Oppenheim, as well as Dr. Detlef Schuppan from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.