ADENOVIRUS-12 AND DERMATITIS-HERPETIFORMIS

Previous studies have shown that A-gliadin, a major gluten-derived pep tide known to activate the gluten-sensitive enteropathy (GSE) of coeli ac disease (CD), and the non-structural E1B peptide produced during ea rly lytic gastrointestinal infection with human adenovirus type 12 (AD 12) share an identical twelve amino acid sequence. It is suggested tha t immunological cross reactivity between these two peptides may play a n important role in the pathogenesis of CD. As a milder but histologic ally identical GSE is found in the majority of patients with dermatiti s herpetiformis (DH), a condition also thought to be caused by dietary gluten, we postulated that AD12 may also be involved in the pathogene sis of DH. To test this we assayed sera from 40 patients with DH and 1 8 healthy controls for AD12-neutralizing antibodies as evidence of pas t viral exposure. Detectable AD12 antibodies (titre of 13 or higher) w ere found in only 15% (6/40) of DH patients, compared with 27.8% (5/18 ) controls (not significant). These findings do not support a causativ e role for AD12 in the pathogenesis of DH.