AMYRA publishes review on gluten digestion approach for celiac disease

AMYRA Biotech AG, a leader in pioneering approaches to digestive health, today announced it published a peer-reviewed literature review in Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics. The review summarizes current knowledge on gluten-digesting enzyme therapies for celiac disease and underlines the benefits of exploring exopeptidase supplementation as a novel therapeutic paradigm.

The review shows that current enzyme therapies primarily rely on gastric endopeptidases for gluten digestion. This approach may have limited efficacy due to poor enzyme-to-substrate exposure in the stomach. Moreover, endopeptidases digest proteins into shorter fragments but do not systematically cleave them into absorbable fractions. The review also highlights the critical, yet underexplored, role of the intestinal brush border membrane (BBM) in digestion, and its vulnerability to chronic inflammation as seen in celiac disease. The BBM is crucial for protein digestion and nutrient absorption, and is the primary source of exopeptidases, enzymes that systematically cleave protein fragments from end-to-end into absorbable amino acids in the gastrointestinal tract. Despite damage to the intestinal BBM and documented loss of exopeptidase activity in celiac disease, few therapies have explored the advantages of supplementing these enzymes in patients.

“Research has shown that even patients on a long-term gluten-free diet exhibit persistent loss of brush border enzyme activity. This loss has important and potentially long-lasting implications for patient nutrition and quality of life,” said Erin Bonner, PhD, lead author of the publication and Senior Scientist at AMYRA Biotech.

AMYRA is addressing this overlooked aspect of digestive diseases with its Brush Border Enzyme Supplementation Technology (“BBEST”). AMYRA’s lead product is a synergistic combination of exopeptidases designed to harmonize with natural digestive physiology to supplement, enhance, or even replace exopeptidase activity of the brush border membrane.

“It’s likely that factors such as chronic gut inflammation, villous atrophy and/or tissue damage impair brush border enzyme activity in indications beyond celiac disease, such as inflammatory bowel disease,” said Sulay Mourabit, PhD, senior author of the study and Chief Scientific Officer at AMYRA. “Our BBEST pipeline is expanding to target enzyme deficiencies across GI conditions, and we are excited to see how this novel therapeutic approach can support enterocyte function.”

AMYRA is exploring extended applications of its BBEST platform for digestion, not only for gastrointestinal diseases, but also for general health and nutrition. To help advance these research efforts, AMYRA is establishing an interdisciplinary collaboration network to further explore the impact of enterocyte dysfunction and brush border membrane enzyme deficiencies.