Isolation and enzymatic fragmentation of the coeliac-active gliadin peptide CT-1

Investigations on the structure/toxicity relationships of gliadin peptides were continued with the coeliac-active gliadin peptide CT-1, which is derived from the N-terminal portion (residues 3-24 of the amino acid sequence) of alpha-gliadins [this journal (1986) 182:115-117]. CT-1 was produced by chymotryptic digestion and reversed-phase (RP) HPLC from the peptide fraction G3 [this journal (1992) 194:1-6] and digested with the proteases endoproteinase Glu-C, pancreatin, papain and thermolysin. The fragment peptides were separated by preparative RP-HPLC and characterized by amino acid analysis. On the basis of the specificity of the enzymes for CT-1 and the toxic effect of enzymatic hydrolysates of gliadin described in the literature, the significance of partial sequences, in particular of the sequence -Pro-Ser-Gln-Gln-Gln-Pro- for the coeliac-toxicity effect, is discussed.