Before COVID-19, the zonulin-dependent permeability of intestinal tight junctions had been implicated in chronic inflammatory diseases such as celiac disease, inflammatory bowel disease, type I diabetes (Fasano, 2011), as well as obesity, septicaemia, environmental enteropathy, necrotizing enterocolitis, among others (Sturgeon and Fasano, 2016). The gene discussed is HP; the disease is celiac disease.