Novel Therapies and Biomarkers for Celiac Disease and Gluten-Related Disorders

Dear Colleagues,

Celiac Disease (CD) and the other gluten-related disorders (GRDs) are epidemiologically relevant phenomena with an approximate global prevalence near to 5%, involving different systems and metabolic pathways. Various mechanisms, both autoimmune and inflammatory, are implicated in the pathogenesis of GRDs and frequently share similar clinical manifestations, making their differential diagnosis challenging. They could involve different parts of the gastrointestinal tract, skin, and nervous and musculoskeletal systems, as they are systemic disorders. Among GRDs, CD is the most well-known, prevalent, and commonly studied. It is defined as the most common chronic, small-intestinal, immune-mediated enteropathy, characterized by heterogeneous clinical presentations, which usually arises after exposure to dietary gluten in genetically predisposed individuals carrying the HLA DQ2 and/or DQ8 haplotypes. Although it is considered a gastrointestinal disease, CD involves different organs or tissues with gastrointestinal and extraintestinal manifestations. Nowadays, research into CD and GRDs is evolving quickly due to new technologies and discoveries. As a consequence, the novel insights, pathomechanisms, novel biomarkers, and therapies (alternative to the gluten free diet) are being studied, and their use in the current clinical practice is the next step. In fact, biomarkers able to efficiently detect a pathological response to gluten and gluten immunodominant peptides are urgently needed to diagnose and monitor GRDs. Furthermore, novel drugs able to degrade ingested gluten or to reduce its proinflammatory effects are becoming available for patients.

In this Special Issue, we aim to expand our knowledge on all of the fundamental aspects of CD and other GRDs; therefore, this Special Issue will include new studies concerning the biological effect of gluten and new molecules as candidates for use in therapies, as novel therapeutic targets, biomarkers to diagnose GRDs and in monitoring the clinical responsiveness and, in general,  new insights in the pathogenesis of GRD.

Dr. Luca Elli
Guest Editor

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• gluten-related disorders
• celiac disease
• gluten
• gluten-free diet
• novel therapies
• therapeutics
• biomarkers
• inflammation
• next-generation sequencing