Deltorphin and Dermorphin: What the GAPS Book Reports

Deltorphin and dermorphin appear in a short but striking passage in Gut and Psychology Syndrome. Campbell-McBride reports that biochemist Alan Friedman found these opioid peptides in autistic children, then describes his suggestion of a fungal source. The finding she reports and the proposed explanation need to remain separate.^[1]

The Finding Reported in GAPS

Campbell-McBride credits Friedman with identifying the compounds and compares them with potent peptides known from frog skin. She then raises the possibility that a fungus associated with frog skin might also grow in the human gut. Her passage leaves that source question for future research.^[1]

A 1999 patent application listing Alan E. Friedman among its inventors provides an original record of a related investigation. It describes HPLC and electrospray mass-spectrometry analysis of urine from 25 people with autism spectrum disorders and reports dermorphin and deltorphin II among the identified peptides. A patent application records the inventors’ findings and claims; it is not, on its own, validation of a diagnostic test.^[2]

What the Frog Research Establishes

The biochemical literature identifies these peptides in Phyllomedusa frog skin. Deltorphins have strong activity at delta opioid receptors; dermorphin is selective for mu opioid receptors. These are specific opioid peptides, rather than an interchangeable name for all frog poisons.^[3]

Researchers also identified genetic sequences in frog-skin material that code for dermorphin precursors. This provides evidence of a frog production pathway. Friedman’s fungal-origin suggestion in GAPS is a different proposal; it does not establish that a child’s gut contains a particular fungus producing either peptide.^[4][1]

What the Urine Research Can and Cannot Tell Us

A separate 2007 study analyzed urine from 54 autistic children and 15 controls using a selective mass-spectrometry method. It did not detect its targeted deltorphins or gluten- and casein-derived peptides above the assay’s detection limit. Dermorphin was not one of its four target analytes. The result therefore should not be described as a test of every compound in Friedman’s account.^[5]

The practical distinction is between reporting a research finding and assuming it applies to a particular child. These records do not establish the presence of either peptide in every autistic child, identify a fungal species in that child or provide a treatment matched to such a species.

Why the Passage Appears in the GAPS Book

Campbell-McBride’s wider point is that the gut-brain discussion extends beyond casomorphins and gliadorphins. She says there are more potentially harmful compounds than one chapter can catalogue and directs attention to the digestive system, beneficial flora and the gut wall. She does not give a separate deltorphin or dermorphin treatment in this passage.^[1]

That keeps this article connected to the protocol without turning an open microbial question into an antifungal prescription. The wider neurotoxin guide places the passage beside the yeast and Clostridia discussions; the fungi guide explains the broader GAPS account of the gut ecosystem.

Keep the Questions Separate

• Identity: which peptide did an analysis report identifying?
• Source: where and how was it produced?
• Effect: what did the study actually measure?
• Individual care: what is known about the person whose health is being discussed?

One answer does not automatically supply the other three. The names can sound alarming, but careful reading is more useful than turning a short passage into a new explanation for every symptom. I want the names to help explain the question being discussed, rather than leave a family with an alarming label and nowhere useful to go next.

Your Next Step

Read the casomorphin and gliadorphin guide for the food-derived peptides, or the gut-brain guide for Campbell-McBride’s wider explanation. My Care Team Log is listed in the WFLI Shop. A notebook can hold the exact study, observation and question you want to keep together.

References

1. Campbell-McBride N. Gut and Psychology Syndrome, expanded second German edition (2015), “Die Darm-Hirn-Achse,” particularly “Opiate aus Gluten und Kasein” and “Andere Toxine.”
2. Shanahan MR, Venturini AJ, Daiss JL, Friedman AE. Diagnostic markers for human disorders. Patent application CA2273683A1, published December 15, 1999, description of the urinary-peptide investigation.
3. Erspamer V et al. Deltorphins: a family of naturally occurring peptides with high affinity and selectivity for delta opioid binding sites. PNAS. 1989;86:5188–5192. doi:10.1073/pnas.86.13.5188.
4. Richter K, Egger R, Kreil G. D-alanine in the frog skin peptide dermorphin is derived from L-alanine in the precursor. Science. 1987;238:200–202. doi:10.1126/science.3659910.
5. Dettmer K et al. Autism and urinary exogenous neuropeptides: development of an on-line SPE–HPLC–tandem mass spectrometry method to test the opioid excess theory. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry. 2007;388:1643–1651. doi:10.1007/s00216-007-1301-4.