Understanding Gluten Cross-Reactivity

I'm a molecular biologist whose amazing girlfriend just learned that she is gluten sensitive, and allergic to a few other foods as well. I made this infographic to explain how gluten cross-reactivity works.

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A simple explanation of gluten cross-reactivity.

1. Proteins are like words made of amino acid letters.

2. Antibodies are proteins that recognize peptides*; think of it like recognizing a few syllables within the word: SUPERCALIFRAGIALISTIC

3. Cross-reactivity happens when antibodies recognize a peptide occurring in a different protein, like SUPERcilious or CALIFornia

4. The result is you mount an immune response to a different antigen that contains the same epitope.

5. Think of all the 5-letter fragments you could make out of SUPERCALIFRAGIALISTIC (there are 17); youcould make antibodies to any of them, and if that fragment is in another protein, you cross-react.

This is why you could be allergic to eggs because you are allergic to gluten.

*The peptide an antibody recognizes is the epitope; the protein containing the epitope is an antigen.