2020 Online Salon
Glutened
Project Details
- Entrant Name: Samantha Palahnuk
- Membership Type: Student Submission
- Address: Chicago, Illinois USA
- Client: Isabel Romero Calvo & Evelyn Maizels
- Copyright: 2020 Samantha Palahnuk
- Medium/software used: VMD, Cell Membrane Editor, RCSB PDB, 3D Studio Max, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
- Final presentation format: Digital Poster
- Primary Audience: Scientific Audience
Project Description
Celiac disease (CD) is a T-cell mediated autoimmune disease triggered by gluten ingestion. 95% of patients with CD carry HLA (human leukocyte antigen)-DQ2, and 5% carry HLA-DA8. Ingested gluten is broken down into glutenin and gliadin, and gliadin is subsequently deamidated by tissue transglutaminase. Deamidation involves the conversion of a glutamine residue to glutamate within the antigenic region of gliadin. This results in high affinity binding of gliadin to a HLA-DQ2-8 complex. An antigen presenting cell with bound gliadin is then recognized by a CD4+ T-cell, and an immune reaction follows. The purpose of this piece was to visualize the HLA-gliadin-T-cell complex and its crucial role in CD using novel structural data published 2019. Compositional studies and several phases of sketches refined the story to highlight the key molecular events in CD: gliadin deamidation and antigen presentation to a CD4+ T-cell.
