The gut microbiota and celiac disease: Pathophysiology, current perspective and new therapeutic approaches

Abstract

Celiac disease (CD) as a chronic gluten-sensitive intestinal condition, mainly affects genetically susceptible hosts. The primary determinants of CD have been identified as environmental and genetic variables. The development of CD is significantly influenced by environmental factors, including the gut microbiome. Therefore, gut microbiome re-programming-based therapies using probiotics, prebiotics, postbiotics, gluten-free diet, and fecal microbiota transplantation have shown promising results in the modification of the gut microbiome. Due to the importance and paucity of information regarding the CD pathophysiology, in this review, we have covered the association between CD development and gut microbiota, the effects of infectious agents, particularly the recent Covid-19 infection in CD patients, and the efficacy of potential therapeutic approaches in the CD have been discussed. Hence, scientific literature indicates that the diverse biological functions of the gut microbiota against immunomodulatory responses have made microbiome-based therapy an alternative therapeutic paradigm to ameliorate the symptoms of CD and quality of life. However, the exact potential of microbiota-based techniques that aims to quantitatively and qualitatively alter the gut microbiota to be used in the treatment and ameliorate the symptoms of CD will be determined with further research in the future.

Keywords:

• Celiac disease
• gluten
• dysbiosis
• gut microbiome
• microbiota

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Liver and Gastrointestinal Diseases Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.