Features and Progression of Potential Celiac Disease in Adults

Background & Aims: Individuals with potential celiac disease have serologic and genetic markers of the disease with little or no damage to the small intestinal mucosa. We performed a prospective study to learn more about disease progression in these people. Methods: We collected data from 77 adults (59 female; median age, 33 years) diagnosed with potential celiac disease (on the basis of serology and HLA type) at Bologna University in Italy from 2004 through 2013. The subjects had normal or slight inflammation of the small intestinal mucosa. Clinical, laboratory, and histologic parameters were evaluated at diagnosis and during a 3-year follow-up period. Results: Sixty-one patients (46 female; median age, 36 years) showed intestinal and extraintestinal symptoms, whereas the remaining 16 (13 female; median age, 21 years) were completely asymptomatic at diagnosis. All subjects tested positive for immunoglobulin A endomysial antibody and tissue transglutaminase antibody, except for 1 patient with immunoglobulin A deficiency; 95% of patients were carriers of HLA-DQ2. Duodenal biopsies from 26% patients had a Marsh score of 0, and 74% had a Marsh score of 1. A higher proportion of symptomatic patients had autoimmune disorders (36%) and antinuclear antibodies (41%) than asymptomatic patients (5% and 12.5%, respectively), and symptomatic patients were of older age at diagnosis (P <.05). Gluten withdrawal led to significant clinical improvement in all 61 symptomatic patients. The 16 asymptomatic patients continued on gluten-containing diets, and only 1 developed mucosal flattening; levels of anti-endomysial and tissue transglutaminase antibodies fluctuated in 5 of these patients or became undetectable. Conclusions: In a 3-year study of adults with potential celiac disease, we found most to have symptoms, but these improved on gluten withdrawal. Conversely, we do not recommend a gluten-free diet for asymptomatic adults with potential celiac disease because they do not tend to develop villous atrophy

Correction: Visani et al. miR-196B-5P and miR-200B-3P Are Differentially Expressed in Medulloblastomas of Adults and Children. Diagnostics 2020, 10, 265

The authors wish to make the following corrections to this paper [...

miR-196B-5P and miR-200B-3P Are Differentially Expressed in Medulloblastomas of Adults and Children

Medulloblastoma is a highly aggressive brain tumor that typically affects children, while in adults it represents ~1% of all brain tumors. Little is known about microRNA expression profile of the rare adult medulloblastoma. The main aim of this study was to identify peculiar differences in microRNA expression between childhood and adult medulloblastoma. Medulloblastomas were profiled for microRNA expression using the Exiqon Human miRNome panel (I + II) analyzing 752 microRNAs in a training set of six adult and six childhood cases. Then, the most differentially expressed microRNAs were validated in a total of 21 adult and 19 childhood cases. Eight microRNAs (miR-196b-5p, miR-183-5p, miR-200b-3p, miR-196a-5p, miR-193a-3p, miR-29c-3p, miR-33b-5p, and miR-200a-3p) were differentially expressed in medulloblastoma of adults and children. Analysis of the validation set confirmed that miR-196b-5p and miR-200b-3p were significantly overexpressed in medulloblastoma of adults as compared with those of children. We followed an in silico approach to investigate direct targets and the pathways involved for the two microRNAs (miR-196b and miR-200b) differently expressed between adult and childhood medulloblastoma. Adult and childhood medulloblastoma have different miRNA expression profiles. In particular, the differential dysregulation of miR-196b-5p and miR-200b-3p characterizes the miRNA profile of adult medulloblastoma and suggests potential targets for novel diagnostic, prognostic, or therapeutic strategies