Microbiomes in physiology: Insights into 21st century global medical challenges

Abstract

New findings: What is the topic of this review? This review summarises the role of the gut microbiome in physiology and how it can be targeted as an effective strategy against two of the most important global medical challenges of our time namely, metabolic diseases and antibacterial resistance. What advances does it highlight? We outline the critical roles of the microbiome in regulating host physiology and discuss how microbiome analysis is useful for disease stratification to enable informed clinical decisions and develop interventions such as faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), prebiotics, and probiotics. We also discuss the limitations of microbiome modulation, including the potential for probiotics to enhance antimicrobial resistance gene reservoirs, and that currently a "healthy microbiome" that can be used as a biobank for transplantation is yet to be defined. Abstract: The human gut microbiome plays a key factor in the development of metabolic diseases and antimicrobial resistance which are among the greatest global medical challenges of the 21st century. The symposium aimed to highlight state-of-the-art evidence for the role of the gut microbiome in physiology, from childhood to adulthood, and the impact this has on global disease outcomes, ageing and antimicrobial resistance. Although the gut microbiome is established early in life, over time the microbiome and their components including metabolites can become perturbed due to changes such as dietary habits, use of antibiotics and age. As gut microbial metabolites, including short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), secondary bile acids and trimethylamine-N-Oxide (TMAO), can interact with host receptors including G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), and can alter host metabolic fluxes, they can significantly affect physiological homeostasis leading to metabolic diseases. These metabolites can be used to stratify disease phenotypes such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and adverse events after heart failure and provide informed decisions on clinical management and treatment. While strategies such as probiotics, prebiotics, and faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) have been proposed as interventions to treat and prevent metabolic diseases and antimicrobial resistance, caution must be exercised; first due to the potential of probiotics to enhance antimicrobial resistance gene reservoirs and second, a "healthy gut microbiome" that can be used as a biobank for transplantation is yet to be defined. We highlight that sampling other parts of the GI tract may produce more representative data than the faecal microbiome alone. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.