Editorial: The Role of Dietary Interventions in The Regulation of Host-Microbe Interactions

Abstract

The gut microbiota, a dynamic ecosystem composed of trillions of microbes in the gastrointestinal tract, has been demonstrated to be involved in the maintenance of human well-being. Mounting evidence has indicated that the diet can be regarded as one of the most effective modulators to the composition and functionality of gut microbiota. While in turn, the gut microbiota profoundly influences the digestion of dietary components, the process of nutrient absorption, and energy storage. This symbiotic relationship between diet and gut microbiota further affects the host physiological functions, suggesting that any perturbation of it may cause varying degrees of discomfort in hosts. Therefore, the gut microbiota could serve as a bridge in the close interaction between dietary interventions and host health. Collectively, these suggestions indicate that targeting the diet could be a potential therapeutic strategy for human diseases via modulating the gut microbiota.Till now, probiotics/prebiotics have been generally proposed as dietary intervention strategies or adjuvant treatments for managing multifarious diseases, such as cancers, gastrointestinal disorders, enteric infections, immune-mediated allergic and autoimmune diseases, and psychiatric disorders. Although various hypotheses have demonstrated that probiotics/prebiotics supplementation plays health-promoting roles via targeting the gut microbiota and/or regulating the systemic immune and metabolic responses, the precise and common molecular mechanisms of these beneficial roles of dietary factors on the host health still need to be explored deeply.This current Research Topic brings twenty-three references together summarizing the recent developments pertaining to the characterization of probiotics (mainly Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, and Saccharomyces) isolated from different niches, the potential relevance of intestinal dysbiosis in the progression of host diseases, and the underlying mechanisms of dietary supplementations as novel strategies for the prevention and treatment of diseases by modulating the gut microbiota.The exploration of the influence of dietary/probiotics interventions in cancer treatment and adjuvant therapy and the associations between the gut dysbiosis and cancers, have been the focus of recent research. A randomized clinical trial performed by Xia et al. suggested a modified probiotic cocktail that contains L. plantarum MH-301, B. animalis subsp. Lactis LPL-RH, L. rhamnosus LGG-18, and L. acidophilus, could attenuate the severity of oral mucositis induced by chemo-radiotherapy in nasopharyngeal carcinoma. It outlined that the efficacy of this cocktail was associated with