INTRODUCTION 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 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanning, cognitive testing, and other measures between healthy volunteers with and without AGA. METHODS Healthy volunteers aged 50-70 years (without celiac disease, on a gluten-containing diet) underwent blood testing to confirm AGA status. Any AGA+ participants were matched to AGA- controls on age, sex, body mass index, level of education, hypertension diagnosis, and smoking history. These subgroups underwent a cognitive test battery, quality-of-life surveys, and brain MRI scanning. Groups were compared between all outcome measures. Secondary analyses correlated AGA titer with outcomes across the whole cohort. RESULTS Groupwise comparisons of cognitive, quality-of-life, and MRI studies were all negative. Repeating these analyses as correlations with AGA titer 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. DISCUSSION Our analysis is the most comprehensive to date and uses 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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无乳糜泻患者的抗麦醇溶蛋白抗体和大脑：一项病例对照研究。


引言 抗麦醇溶蛋白抗体 （AGA） 存在于大约 10% 的普通人群中，作为对麸质的反应而产生。如果控制不当，自身免疫性麸质相关疾病可能会对神经系统产生有害影响，但这种偶然的 AGA 的相关性尚未得到适当确定;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。我们通过比较有和没有 AGA 的健康志愿者的脑磁共振成像 （MRI） 扫描、认知测试和其他措施来探讨这个问题。方法 年龄在 50-70 岁之间 （无乳糜泻，含麸质饮食） 的健康志愿者接受血液检查以确认 AGA 状态。任何 AGA+ 参与者在年龄、性别、体重指数、教育水平、高血压诊断和吸烟史方面都与 AGA- 对照相匹配。这些亚组接受了认知测试电池、生活质量调查和脑部 MRI 扫描。在所有结局指标之间比较各组。二次分析将 AGA 滴度与整个队列的结局相关联。结果 认知、生活质量和 MRI 研究的分组比较均为阴性。将这些分析重复为与整个队列中 AGA 滴度的相关性，发现了关于细微认知障碍测试错误率的单一显着结果，其方向表明 IgG AGA 增加以预测较差的性能。这在多重比较校正中没有幸存下来。讨论 我们的分析是迄今为止最全面的，并使用了许多已知对神经生理学和认知的细微变化敏感的结果测量。偶然的 AGA 似乎与神经心理缺陷的任何迹象无关。