Modulating the Human Gut Microbiome as an Emerging Therapeutic Paradigm

Abstract

The human body is actually a vast and changing ecosystem comprised of billions of microbial organisms, known collectively as the microbiome. Within the last few years, the study of the microbiome and its impact on human health has been a rapidly growing area of biomedical science. The gut intestinal tract microbiome has been a particular focus of research given its potential role in many inflammatory and metabolic diseases as well as drug metabolism. Although a nascent field, the potential for modulating the gut microbiome or human host interactions associated with these microbes offers new therapeutic strategies for many chronic diseases, in particular obesity, diabetes and inflammatory bowel diseases. Here we provide an overview of present knowledge about the gut microbiome, its putative role in metabolic diseases and the potential for microbiome focused treatments from the drug development perspective.

Biomarkers of insulin sensitivity and insulin resistance: Past, present and future

“…Overall, further comprehensive studies will be needed to accurately delineate the precise changes in gut microbiota, which are associated with insulin resistance, and in which specific backgrounds they are applied. Establishing these criteria will also pave the way for therapeutic strategies designed to modify microbiota profiles accordingly 148 .…”

Genome Sequence of Christensenella minuta DSM 22607 T

“…Due to its widespread and significant effects on human health, modulation of the gut microbiome is an emerging therapeutic paradigm, particularly for obesity, diabetes, and inflammatory bowel diseases (2). …”

“…For example, Firmicutes bacteria are more abundant at the expense of Bacteroides bacteria, both as a result of a high fat/high sugar diet (6) and as a consequence of host genetic obesity due to leptin deficiency (7). However, microbiome-targeted therapeutic efforts for obesity have been hampered by a lack of understanding of the interactions between host genetics and the microbiome, as well as the complexity and diversity of the microbiome (2). Recently, Christensenella minuta (the first described member of the Christensenellaceae family [8]) was described as being extremely highly heritable and as promoting a lean host phenotype through an unknown biological mechanism, a finding which was experimentally verified using transplantation techniques in germ-free mice (3).…”

The Microbiome in Early Life: Self‐Completion and Microbiota Protection as Health Priorities

“…Murdoch and Detsky () argued that it is high time to recognize our microbiota as central players in human health management. Raipal and Brown () advocated that management of the human microbiome will be the therapeutic paradigm for the future. Likewise, Wallace and Redibo () identified the human microbiome as a major target of clinical significance and potential pharmacologic therapy.…”