GEMS · Gluten Epitope Molecularly imprinted polymer Sensor
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2018-01-01 → 2019-12-31
- EU contribution
- €180,277
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Gluten Epitope Molecularly imprinted polymer Sensor
"The GEMS project aims at the development of a portable sensor for the determination of gluten allergens in food. The project and its importance for the society: Celiac disease affect the 1-2% of the European population, with estimate direct costs on the public health of about 3 billion euro/year. Just in the sole Italy, celiac disease is diagnosed with a frequency of 1 person every 100, with prevalence in female subjects. The term ""celiac disease"" indicates a permanent intolerance to the gluten by the immune system. In celiac suffering subjects gluten intake triggers autoimmune reactions with inflammation of the intestinal mucosa that leads to the atrophy of the intestinal villi and to chronic impairing conditions. There are no known medical treatments effective to cure the disease, but the therapy just is a strict gluten-free diet for life. Given the fact that there is no medical treatment for celiac suffering subjects, having an autonomous, portable measurement methods designed specifically to alert those suffering from celiac sprue that the food is gluten-free, responds to the need to offer food safety perspectives to those suffering from this chronic disease. The aim of the project is to devise a chemical sensor for fast point of care testing of gluten content in food, by the design of a portable sensor based on a polymer recognition unit, thanks to molecular-type polymer (MIP) technology, and to an electrochemical transducer, as shown in the Figure below. Objectives: 1. performing in silico digestion of gluten proteins to identify toxic peptides of gluten, using biochemical and biological-databases. Focus is on those epitopes that are reported as harmful for patients suffering from celiac disease. 2. selection of functional monomers containing sites capable of forming complexes with the gluten epitope templates and suitable for electrochemical polymerization. 3. imprinting of the toxic gluten epitopes directly on the surfaces of the chosen transduction structures, the characterization of the MIP films by surface investigating techniques, template removal from the MIP networks. 4. validating the fabricated chemical sensor; checking its selective response to the gluten epitope both with model samples and with real samples. For a comparison commercially available ELISA gluten kits will be utilized. "
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Introduction-state of art of the problem: The main goal of the present proposal is to devise a chemical sensor capable of gluten detection in food. Gluten is the allergen that triggers autoimmuno reactions in people suffering of celiac disease (CD). CD is an autoimmune disorder, characterized a variety of genetic assets, which is estimated to affect the 1-2 % of the European population with direct costs on the healthcare estimated as 3 bn Euros/year. According to the state of the current knowledge gluten-free diet is mandatory in CD. Food shall contain less than 20 mg/kg gluten of to be considered as “gluten-free” and to be eaten safely. Scientific part of the project: To face the problem of CD we are coming with the idea to devise a chemical sensor capable of fast gluten detection in food. To complete this task, we will design a recognition unit using the technology of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), which allows to produce synthetic receptors by a template assisted synthesis. Being gluten a mix of proteins (prolamins) the design of the MIPs will be rationalized by the aid of the epitope imprinting methodology, that complements protein 3D- and linear sequence-databases, so to find distinctive portions of the protein to be used as templates. The next step is an electrode-MIP preparation based on thiophene monomers that will proceed through a foregoing rational design of the monomers selection by computational methods. In the third step we will focus on the study of the performance of the sensor both in model solutions and in real samples. Finally, validation on true samples will be performed by comparing our results to independent analytical methods.Expected outcomes and impact of the work: As result of the proposed project, the laboratory model of the working gluten chemosensor will be developed. Such model will be useful to devise a prototype of a gluten detector ready for commercialization.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI VERONA · VeronaCoordinatorItaly
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union