Devin Houston, PhD
The Role of Enzymes in Food Intolerances,
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Gut Issues and Autism
What are enzymes?
The Role of Enzymes in Food
Intolerances, Gut Issues & Autism
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Devin Houston, PhD
CEO, Houston Enzymes
Specialized proteins that catalyze chemical reactions
Not changed or destroyed during the reaction
Specific for a single function
Many thousands of different enzymes
•  Metabolic - inside cells, difficult to affect
•  Digestive - Breakdown proteins, carbohydrates, fats
•  Pancreatic (animal)
•  Plant-based (Fruits, fungi, bacterial)
MINDD Conference 2011
Digestive enzymes
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Autism can affect the gut
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Necessary to break down whole foods into absorbable form
Found in saliva, stomach, pancreas and intestine
Produced by probiotic bacteria in colon
Both pancreatic and plant-based enzymes available in oral form
Inflammation
Malabsorption, decreased peristalsis
Developmental delay
Food allergies and other immune system problems
Plant-derived enzymes offer advantages over pancreatic enzymes
Food intolerances not
limited to autism
Some foods not tolerated in autism
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Wheat (gluten protein)
Dairy (casein protein and/or lactose sugar)
Soy protein
Certain carbohydrates, e.g. lactose, raffinose
Polyphenolic compounds, oxalates, lectins
Non-celiac gluten intolerance
IBS
ADHD
Diverticulitis
Food allergies of non-anaphylactic nature
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Restoring gut health
Restrictive diets often helpful
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•  Provide healthy environment for probiotic bacteria
•  Reduce inflammation as well as the cause
•  Eliminate potential future allergen production
Oral enzymes complement diets
Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD)
Low Oxalate Diet (LOD)
Body Ecology Diet (BED)
Gut and Psychology Diet (GAPS)
Diets may also be difficult
•  Many diets now incorporate oral enzyme supplements
•  Enzymes often used as alternative to some diets
•  Enzymes can often achieve same goals as diets
•  Nutritional Insufficiency?
•  Family lifestyles
•  Cost and availability
•  More specific
•  Faster
•  Less costly, more convenient
Anecdotal observations
associated with enzyme use
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Gluten-free Casein-free diet (GFCF)
How do enzymes help?
•  Break down proteins differently, more thoroughly
Speech starts or improves dramatically
Better eye focus and contact
Less stimming
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Improvements often noted by unknowing third parties
Bowel movements improved
Positive benefits often increased for those on diets
•  Prevent production of exorphin and other peptides
•  Requires optimal blend of protease and peptidase enzymes
•  Function in stomach, no peptide absorption occurs
Modify polyphenolic compounds
May mimic enzymes produced by probiotics?
Break down carbohydrates
Modify effect of stomach/pancreatic enzymes
Benefits are dependent upon many factors
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Example: DPP IV peptidase
Proteins: Digestive formation of casomorphin
Bovine
Casein
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-tyr-pro-phe-pro-glu-pro-ile-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
•  Only known enzyme to degrade exorphin casomorphin
•  Produced by cells in GI tract
•  Found in commercially available protease blends (Houston, 1999)
(1) Pepsin
(2) Elastase
Casomorphin
Casein amino acid sequence affected by DPP IV
DPP IV effect on casomorphin
Bovine
Casein
tyr-pro-phe-pro-glu-pro-ile
x-x-x-x- tyr-pro- phe-pro- glu-pro- ile -x-x-x-x
(1)
Pepsin
DPP IV
DPP IV
In Stomach
No casomorphin formed!
Blocked peptide formation by multiple proteases
Bovine
Casein
x-x-x-x-tyr-pro-phe- pro-glu- pro-ile -x-x-x-x
A Food-Grade Enzyme Preparation with Modest Gluten
Detoxification Properties
Protease 4.5 Protease 6.0
(1)
Pepsin
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(2) Elastase
Jennifer Ehren1., Belen Morón2., Edith Martin2, Michael T. Bethune3, Gary M. Gray4, Chaitan Khosla1,2,3*
1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America, 2 Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford,
California, United States of America, 3 Department of Biochemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States of America, 4 Department of Medicine, Stanford
University, Stanford, California, United States of America
X
tyr-pro-phe-pro-glu-pro-ile
Abstract
Casomorphin
Background and Aims: Celiac sprue is a life-long disease characterized by an intestinal inflammatory response to dietary
gluten. A gluten-free diet is an effective treatment for most patients, but accidental ingestion of gluten is common, leading
to incomplete recovery or relapse. Food-grade proteases capable of detoxifying moderate quantities of dietary gluten could
mitigate this problem.
Methods: We evaluated the gluten detoxification properties of two food-grade enzymes, aspergillopepsin (ASP) from
Aspergillus niger and dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPPIV) from Aspergillus oryzae. The ability of each enzyme to hydrolyze gluten
was tested against synthetic gluten peptides, a recombinant gluten protein, and simulated gastric digests of whole gluten
and whole-wheat bread. Reaction products were analyzed by mass spectrometry, HPLC, ELISA with a monoclonal antibody
that recognizes an immunodominant gluten epitope, and a T cell proliferation assay.
Results: ASP markedly enhanced gluten digestion relative to pepsin, and cleaved recombinant a2-gliadin at multiple sites in
a non-specific manner. When used alone, neither ASP nor DPPIV efficiently cleaved synthetic immunotoxic gluten peptides.
This lack of specificity for gluten was especially evident in the presence of casein, a competing dietary protein. However,
supplementation of ASP with DPPIV enabled detoxification of moderate amounts of gluten in the presence of excess casein
and in whole-wheat bread. ASP was also effective at enhancing the gluten-detoxifying efficacy of cysteine endoprotease EPB2 under simulated gastric conditions.
Conclusions: Clinical studies are warranted to evaluate whether a fixed dose ratio combination of ASP and DPPIV can
provide near-term relief for celiac patients suffering from inadvertent gluten exposure. Due to its markedly greater
hydrolytic activity against gluten than endogenous pepsin, food-grade ASP may also augment the activity of therapeutically
relevant doses of glutenases such as EP-B2 and certain prolyl endopeptidases.
Citation: Ehren J, Morón B, Martin E, Bethune MT, Gray GM, et al. (2009) A Food-Grade Enzyme Preparation with Modest Gluten Detoxification Properties. PLoS
ONE 4(7): e6313. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006313
Editor: Hany A. El-Shemy, Cairo University, Egypt
Received March 29, 2009; Accepted June 22, 2009; Published July 21, 2009
Copyright: � 2009 Ehren et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Funding: This research was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (DK 063158) to C.K. J.E. was a recipient of an NSF predoctoral fellowship,
and a grant from the Celiac Sprue Research Foundation. B.M. was the recipient of a postdoctoral fellowship from ‘‘Fundación Caja Madrid’’. The funders had no
role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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Competing Interests: C.K. is a Director & Stockholder in Alvine Pharmaceuticals, a company that is developing an oral enzyme drug for celiac disease. None of
the other authors have any financial interests to disclose.
* E-mail: [email protected]
. These authors contributed equally to this work.
diagnosed thus far [1]. At present, the only suitable treatment is
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Enzymes may allow tolerance
to many types of foods
Polyphenolic compounds
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•  Some indications of help with oxalates and lectins
•  More obvious help for foods high in polyphenolics
•  Apparent function is through modificaton of
polyphenols, not degradation
Very abundant in diet, several hundred identified in foods
Chief interest is due to antioxidant potential
Modulate the activity of wide range of enzymes/receptors
Research areas mainly focus on role in oxidative stress
Certain enzymes convert polyphenolics to absorbable form
Enzyme dosing
Reasons to try enzymes
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• Experimentation encouraged, no toxicity, safe dosing
• Try taking enzymes at beginning of meal
• Base dosing on size of meal, not body weight or age
• May be taken with most medications or other supplements
Results often seen faster than with diet
Inexpensive
No special medical attention or testing required
May be a better fit to a family s lifestyle, less stress
Studies are good, but not necessary to find out if helpful
for your situation
• Effective with first dose for digestive results
Devin Houston, PhD
[email protected]
www.houston-enzymes.com
1-866-757-8627
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