The chemistry of gut microbiome in health and diseases

Abstract

There are trillions of microbes residing in our body, with their collective genomes much more than human genomes. They have been living in a close relationship with us and play a role in various biological functions. The human microbes begin to build up in utero, accumulate, and fluctuate until a set point is achieved around three years of age. The gut microbiome is altered by several factors, which include age, diet, and antibiotic use. After the exposure, the microbe may shift back to retain its balance, but some factors may leave a permanent footprint on the gut flora. This may be significant as our review has shown the relationships between microbes and diseases. When the homeostasis of gut-microbes is disrupted, multiple mechanisms have been shown to contribute to diseases' development. The balance between protective and pathogenic microbes must be kept in check to prevent disease onset. With a better understanding of this relationship, we will investigate the potential methods to modify the gut flora as the background of developing therapeutic options. There are already some therapeutic options such as prebiotics, probiotics, and fecal transplantation, but their clinical use is limited and restricted. Therefore, there is still a need to investigate the characteristic microbiome association with gut-dysbiosis-related diseases, which may help manage the disease and develop diagnostic and monitoring tools. This review aims to discuss our gut microbiome and its association with human health and diseases.

Unveiling the Impact of Antibiotics and Alternative Methods for Animal Husbandry: A Review

“…This claim is supported by the findings that germ-free chickens, which were raised in isolation, did not experience enhanced growth when fed antibiotics [10]. Under normal circumstances, intestinal bacteria inhabit the intestinal tract of a host, and influence important physiological, immunological and nutritional factors, which maintain the overall health of the host [11,12]. These intestinal bacteria help animals to gain increased protection against colonisation by pathogenic bacteria, possess larger gut size, demonstrate thicker gut walls and display higher numbers of intestinal villi than that of germ-free animals [10].…”

Recent Advances in Understanding the Structure and Function of the Human Microbiome

“…Microbial dysbiosis is associated with the onset and progression of many diseases such as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), obesity, metabolic disorders, and mental disorders (Gorecki et al, 2019;Wei et al, 2020;Doelman et al, 2021). While there is a plethora of research linking the microbiome dysbiosis to a particular disease, little is known about the underlying mechanisms (Liang et al, 2019;Gomaa, 2020;Duran-Pinedo et al, 2021;Lau et al, 2021). It is logical to anticipate that missing or enriched microbial taxa might affect microbial interactions and secreted metabolites which in turn can change host metabolism and other body functions.…”

Exploring the Role and Potential of Probiotics in the Field of Mental Health: Major Depressive Disorder

“…This conceptualization has paved the way for scientists to explore and link various health conditions to the MGBA in an attempt to explain the possible etiopathologies involved in their occurrence. The number of studies involving some of the common disorders in the gastrointestinal, psychiatric, cardiometabolic and neurological domains, as well as cancers, in relation to the MGBA has been exponentially growing over recent decades and steadily moving towards a promising therapeutic direction in the context of human health [2][3][4][5][6][7][8].…”