The Emerging Role of the Autophagy Process in Children with Celiac Disease: Current Status and Research Perspectives

Abstract

Celiac disease (CD) affects approximately 1% of the population in Europe and North America, but the number of patients currently undiagnosed is estimated to be far higher than that of diagnosed cases owing to the presence of prevalent forms with nonspecific symptoms. The toxicity of gliadin in children with CD is not destroyed through digestion with gastropancreatic enzymes. An innate immunity to gliadin plays a key role in the development of CD. Autophagy, a physiological catabolic process, plays also a crucial role in the pathogenesis of several inflammatory diseases. Recent studies have described functional involvement of the regulation of autophagy within a pediatric CD cohort. Furthermore, the contribution of autophagy has been highlighted in the degradation and in the reduction of extracellular release of gliadin peptides, thus suggesting novel molecular targets to counteract gliadin-induced toxicity in CD.

Putting the “mi” in omics: discovering miRNA biomarkers for pediatric precision care

“…In celiac disease (CD), it is thought that exogenous gliadin peptides may be targets of the autophagy clearance process. 79 To further identify molecular players in this mechanism, Comincini et al developed a Naïve Bayes method to identify regulatory miRNAs associated with CD. 80 Using RT-qPCR, miRNA levels were measured from pediatric CD patient intestinal biopsy samples.…”