Table 1.

Overview of the characteristics of adverse reactions to wheat gluten and ATIs, modified from Scherf and Koehler [16]

	Wheat allergy	Celiac disease	NCWS
Prevalence	0.5–4%	1%	0.6–6%
Time until start of symptoms	Minutes–hours	Days–weeks*	Hours
Symptoms	Intra-/extra-intestinal	Intra-/extra-intestinal	Intra-/extra-intestinal
Triggering proteins	Gluten/ ATIs/other wheat proteins	Gluten	ATIs/gluten/other wheat proteins?
Immune response	Adaptive	Adaptive/Innate	Innate
Antibodies	IgE	IgA/IgG subclasses**	IgG subclasses**
Intestinal damage	None	Yes	Probably
Intestinal barrier dysfunction	None	Yes	Probably
Therapy	Wheat-free diet	Gluten-free diet	Wheat- or gluten-free diet

‘Extra-intestinal’ refers to symptoms presenting outside the gastrointestinal tract. Ig immunoglobulin, ATIs amylase/trypsin inhibitors. *However, coeliac disease symptoms may remain unnoticed/undiagnosed for many years. **A recent study [12] showed that the B cells of coeliac disease patients produced a subclass profile of IgG antibodies (IgG1, IgG3) with a strong inflammatory potential that is linked to autoimmune activity and intestinal cell damage. By contrast, patients with NCWS produced IgG antibodies (IgG4, IgG2) that are associated with a more restrained inflammatory response