BACKGROUND Anti-gliadin antibodies (AGA) occur in approximately 10% of the general population, produced as a response to gluten. Autoimmune gluten-related disorders can have detrimental neurological effects if not properly controlled but the relevance of such "incidental" AGA is not properly established; any harm caused would indicate the gluten-free diet as a means for affected people to protect their brain health. We explored this question by comparing brain MRI scanning, cognitive testing and other measures between healthy volunteers with and without AGA. METHODS Healthy volunteers aged 50-70 (without celiac disease, on a gluten-containing diet) underwent blood testing to confirm AGA status. Any AGA+ subjects were matched to AGA- controls on age, sex, BMI, level of education, hypertension diagnosis and smoking history. These subgroups underwent a cognitive test battery, quality-of-life (QoL) surveys and brain MRI scanning. Groups were compared between all outcome measures. Secondary analyses correlated AGA titre with outcomes across the whole cohort. RESULTS Groupwise comparisons of cognitive, QoL and MRI studies were all negative. Repeating these analyses as correlations with AGA titre across the cohort, a single significant result was found concerning the error rate on the subtle cognitive impairment test, in a direction indicating increased IgG AGA to predict worse performance. This did not survive multiple comparisons correction. CONCLUSIONS Our analysis is the most comprehensive to date and utilises a number of outcome measures known to be sensitive to subtle shifts in neurophysiology and cognition. Incidental AGA does not appear to be associated with any indications of neuropsychological deficit.

中文翻译：

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抗麦胶蛋白抗体和无乳糜泻患者的大脑：一项病例对照研究。


背景技术 抗麦醇溶蛋白抗体 (AGA) 存在于大约 10% 的普通人群中，是作为对麸质的反应而产生的。如果控制不当，自身免疫性麸质相关疾病可能会产生有害的神经系统影响，但这种“偶然”AGA 的相关性尚未正确确定；造成的任何伤害都表明无麸质饮食是受影响人群保护大脑健康的一种手段。我们通过比较患有和未患有 AGA 的健康志愿者的脑部 MRI 扫描、认知测试和其他测量结果来探讨这个问题。方法 50-70 岁的健康志愿者（无乳糜泻，食用含麸质饮食）接受血液检测以确认 AGA 状态。任何 AGA+ 受试者与 AGA- 对照者在年龄、性别、BMI、教育水平、高血压诊断和吸烟史方面进行匹配。这些亚组接受了认知测试、生活质量 (QoL) 调查和脑部 MRI 扫描。对所有结果指标进行各组比较。二次分析将 AGA 滴度与整个队列的结果相关联。结果 认知、生活质量和 MRI 研究的分组比较均为阴性。在整个队列中重复这些与 AGA 滴度相关的分析，发现了一个关于微妙认知障碍测试错误率的显着结果，表明 IgG AGA 增加可预测较差的表现。这没有经过多重比较校正。结论我们的分析是迄今为止最全面的，并利用了许多已知对神经生理学和认知的微妙变化敏感的结果测量。偶然的 AGA 似乎与任何神经心理缺陷的迹象无关。