Celiac disease (CD) is characterized by villous atrophy and affects approximately 1-2% of the global population. A confirmatory diagnosis of CD requires a sequence of duodenal biopsies confirming the actual status of villous abnormality. However, obtaining biopsies is an invasive and expensive diagnostic procedure.

Multiple celiac-specific non-invasive serological markers have been established but they do not predict the actual status of the villous architecture. Furthermore, their finding is highly non-specific and requires validation from duodenal biopsy examination. To date, a reliable non-invasive marker for assessing villous atrophy is still not well-established. Therefore, there is an immense need for a trusted, non-invasive, affordable, and easy to perform examination for assessing the celiac-specific histological structure. Certain recently-adopted biomarkers such as citrulline and Intestinal fatty acid binding proteins (I-FABP) could be quite promising to predict villous abnormalities, however, none are proven as a reliable test for the diagnosis and management of CD and therefore require further validation before their inclusion in clinical practice. Novel developing approaches like transcriptomics, proteomics, and genomics could be used alone or in combination with other factors for the diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of this disease. However, their efficacy is still under investigation.

This Special Issue aims to provide a comprehensive collection of articles describing current approaches to accurately assessing the status of villous abnormalities through minimally invasive or non-invasive methods that can be established as a fair replacement for the complex, expensive, and invasive duodenal biopsy procedure. Original research and review articles are welcome.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Novel evolving biomarkers for CD screening
• Biomarkers of gut barrier function
• Biomarkers to detect gluten adherence
• Biomarkers for celiac management
• Biomarkers for non-celiac gluten sensitivity
• Biomarkers for gluten detection
• Biomarkers for other gluten-related disorders
• Biomarkers for leaky gut (zonulin)
• Biomarkers for HLA-DQ alleles
• Biomarkers to detect endomysial antibody (EMA)