Interesting info about Peptides

[mle_ii]

Ok, I've heard of Peptides before, but being curious I looked it up on wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polypeptide

While reading it I came across this bit of info:

Digested peptides
Are the result of nonspecific proteolysis as part of the digestive cycle. It has also been documented that, when certain food proteins such as gluten, casein, egg protein and spinach protein are broken down, opioid peptides are formed. These peptides mimic the effects of morphine, and those individuals that are unable to break them down will experience mental illness. These peptides are quite short and are given names such as casomorphine, gluten exorphine and dermorphine. Ultimately digested peptides are ribosomal peptides, although they aren't made on the ribosome of the organism that contains them.

Opioid peptides, now that sounds interesting what is that?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_peptides

Brain opioid peptide systems are known to play an important role in motivation, emotion, attachment behaviour, the response to stress and pain, and the control of food intake.

Wow, no wonder it's so hard for some folks to give up breads and dairy. Since a lot of us have issues with gluten, lets take a look at one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten_exorphin

The Gluten exorphines are a group of opioid peptides which are formed during digestion of the gluten protein. They are usually broken down into amino acids by digestion enzymes, but in some individuals they are not. They are then accumulated in the body over time and can lead to a peptide poisoning. This is particularly often reported in patients with ADHD, autism and schizophrenia. Gluten exorphines mimick the effects of opiates and therefore influence the mind. This is partly the basis for the Gluten-free, casein-free diet. Withdrawal symptoms are reported in severe cases.

Wow.

Looking into a few of those opioid peptieds led me into some interesting areas as well.

How in the world can Doctors still believe that food plays no role in a lot of our problems? The evidence out there is pretty substantial that it does.

Mike

[tex]

Mike,

Very interesting information.

Remember that endorphins, (actually endomorphines), are endogenous opioids, (naturally occuring opioids), which are an integral part of brain chemistry, and used by the body for pain control, and a heightened sense of well-being.

I'm not sure how this all ties together for people with compromised digestive systems.

Tex

[kate_ce1995]

Well, I'm in the category of addicted when it comes to bread. I have a very hard time resisting it. I'm doing okay at the moment...I think 4 days now. Its about the 3-4 day mark I start to feel an easing of muscle pain and reduced bloating. But I think days 6-7 are the hardest in terms of resisting the urge.

Katy

[harvest_table]

Mike, this is very interesting. There appears to be a strong relationship between the gatekeeper- cytokrine and endogenous opioids.

Love,
Joanna

[harvest_table]

The physiologic role of the μ opioid receptor (MOR) in gut nociception, motility, and secretion is well established. The mechanistic basis of these observations suggests that the anti-inflammatory effects of MOR in the colon are mediated through the regulation of cytokine production and T cell proliferation, two important immunologic events required for the development of colon inflammation in mice and patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). These data provide evidence that MOR plays a role in the control of gut inflammation and suggest that MOR agonists might be new therapeutic molecules in IBD.

[harvest_table]

The physiologic role of the μ opioid receptor (MOR) in gut nociception, motility, and secretion is well established. The mechanistic basis of these observations suggests that the anti-inflammatory effects of MOR in the colon are mediated through the regulation of cytokine production and T cell proliferation, two important immunologic events required for the development of colon inflammation in mice and patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). These data provide evidence that MOR plays a role in the control of gut inflammation and suggest that MOR agonists might be new therapeutic molecules in IBD.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articl ... tid=154442

Love,
Joanna

[mle_ii]

Very cool. I'm wondering if this is why smoking is protective of some IBD and other inflammitory diseases of the bowel. As the chemicals would be agonists for these receptors which would then limit inflammation.

There's got to be a better way of naturally doing the same thing. And since Dairy and Wheat/Gluten are out. Though I wonder if it was the effect of too much of these natural/daily agonists that caused problems with the receptors and they're somehow stuck or blocked in folks with chronic inflammation.

This is very interesting indeed. Thanks for bringing this up. Oh and here's a more recent study on this aspect.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer ... med_DocSum

Anyone have access to the full article along with the comments?

Thanks,
Mike

[mle_ii]

Funny how info like this can run so many courses. Take a look at this:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer ... med_docsum

Effects of acupuncture at GV01 on experimentally induced colitis in rats: possible involvement of the opioid system.
Kim HY, Hahm DH, Pyun KH, Lee SK, Lee HJ, Nam TC, Shim I.
Department of Oriental Medical Science, Graduate School of East-West Medical Science, Kyung Hee University, Kyunggi-do 449-701, South Korea.

Oriental medicine uses acupuncture at the GV01 acupoint with great success to treat diarrhea. It significantly reduced the colonic motility and inflammation in colitic rats. Naloxone pretreatment blocked these effects. The therapeutic effects of acupuncture at GV01 in colitis may involve endogenous opioid pathways.

FYI Naloxone is an antagonist towards these mu opoid receptors.

[mle_ii]

Ha, and here's perhaps why NSAIDs are detrimental to this whole process.

COX-1 is part of NSAIDs, COX-1 inhibits Prostaglandin. Prostaglandin is responsible for binding things to G-protein-coupled receptors. And guess what happens to be a G-protein-coupled receptor... Those same mu opoid receptors responsible for helping limit inflamation.

[harvest_table]

Tex posted this article. It's very interesting.

http://www.perskyfarms.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4464


Thanks for all your research Mike!

Love,
Joanna

[mle_ii]

I'm guessing that this is related to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_T_cell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interleukin_10

Regulatory T cells (also known as suppressor T cells) are a specialized subpopulation of T cells that act to suppress activation of the immune system and thereby maintain immune system homeostasis and tolerance to self.

...

Interest in regulatory T cells has been heightened by evidence from experimental mouse models demonstrating that the immunosuppressive potential of these cells can be harnessed therapeutically to treat autoimmune diseases and facilitate transplantation tolerance or specifically eliminated to potentiate cancer immunotherapy.

...

An important question in the field of immunology is how the immunosuppressive activity of regulatory T cells is modulated during the course of an ongoing immune response. While the immunosuppressive function of regulatory T cells prevents the development of autoimmune disease, it is not desirable during immune responses to infectious microorganisms. Current hypothesis’ suggest that upon encounter with infectious microorganisms the activity of regulatory T cells may be downregulated, either directly or indirectly, by other cells to facilitate elimination of the infection. Experimental evidence from mouse models suggests that some pathogens may have evolved to manipulate regulatory T cells to immunosuppress the host and so potentiate their own survival. For example, regulatory T cell activity has been reported to increase in several infectious contexts, such as retroviral infections and various parasitic infections including Leishmania and malaria.

So here we go, we get some sort of infection and self/nonself check of the immune system is turned off, and for some reason in us and Celiac it doesn't get turned back on and the immune system still trys to get rid of the problem. In Celiac the problem is Gluten so the immune system continues to attack. In us we don't know, they think it's the good/bad bacteria in our colon, perhaps some thing else is responsible. Gluten perhaps or some other protein that the body considers an antigen, or perhaps a virus/bacteria.