{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,21]],"date-time":"2026-10-21T20:17:19Z","timestamp":1792613839689,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,1]],"date-time":"2026-05-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1777593600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Life"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Helicobacter pylori remains a major cause of chronic active gastritis and a clinically relevant precursor of peptic ulcer disease and gastric neoplasia. Host-derived non-invasive biomarkers that reflect infection-related gastric inflammation are still insufficiently developed. This study evaluated the clinical relevance of fecal miR-146a in patients with H. pylori-associated gastritis. Methods: We conducted a prospective study over a 3-year period (2023\u20132025) at the County Clinical Emergency Hospital Sibiu, Romania. The study included 85 adults: 45 patients with confirmed H. pylori-associated gastritis and 40 controls. Demographic, clinical, inflammatory, endoscopic, histopathological, and molecular data were analyzed. Continuous variables were compared using the Mann\u2013Whitney U test and categorical variables using the chi-square or Fisher\u2019s exact test. Multivariable analysis was performed using Firth\u2019s penalized logistic regression. Results: Patients with H. pylori-associated gastritis showed significantly higher fecal miR-146a expression than controls (2.05 [1.77\u20132.37] vs. 0.88 [0.77\u20130.99], p &lt; 0.001). They also had higher CRP, ESR, WBC, abdominal pain scores, and a greater burden of endoscopic and histopathological abnormalities. In both multivariable models, fecal miR-146a remained the only significant variable associated with disease status. Conclusions: Fecal miR-146a is markedly elevated in H. pylori-associated gastritis and may represent a promising non-invasive biomarker of infection-related gastric inflammation. Larger prospective studies are needed for validation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/life16050759","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,1]],"date-time":"2026-05-01T16:54:07Z","timestamp":1777654447000},"page":"759","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Fecal miR-146a as a Non-Invasive Biomarker for Helicobacter pylori-Associated Gastritis"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Olga","family":"Brusnic","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Internal Medicine VII, George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology of Targu Mures, Gheorghe Marinescu Street No. 38, 540136 Targu Mures, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6646-1585","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Adrian","family":"Boicean","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Medicine, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, 550169 Sibiu, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Samuel Bogdan","family":"Todor","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Medicine, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, 550169 Sibiu, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-3106-7905","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Paula","family":"Anderco","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Medicine, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, 550169 Sibiu, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0005-9111-6088","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cristian","family":"Ichim","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Medicine, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, 550169 Sibiu, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"553","DOI":"10.1016\/S2468-1253(23)00070-5","article-title":"Global prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection between 1980 and 2022: A systematic review and meta-analysis","volume":"8","author":"Li","year":"2023","journal-title":"Lancet Gastroenterol. 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