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Review
. 2016 Jul 15;30(14):1589-97.
doi: 10.1101/gad.284091.116.

Metabolites: messengers between the microbiota and the immune system

Maayan Levy  1 , Christoph A Thaiss  1 , Eran Elinav  1
Affiliations
Review

Metabolites: messengers between the microbiota and the immune system

Maayan Levy et al. Genes Dev. .

Abstract

The mammalian intestine harbors one of the largest microbial densities on Earth, necessitating the implementation of control mechanisms by which the host evaluates the state of microbial colonization and reacts to deviations from homeostasis. While microbial recognition by the innate immune system has been firmly established as an efficient means by which the host evaluates microbial presence, recent work has uncovered a central role for bacterial metabolites in the orchestration of the host immune response. In this review, we highlight examples of how microbiota-modulated metabolites control the development, differentiation, and activity of the immune system and classify them into functional categories that illustrate the spectrum of ways by which microbial metabolites influence host physiology. A comprehensive understanding of how microbiota-derived metabolites shape the human immune system is critical for the rational design of therapies for microbiota-driven diseases.

Keywords: immune; metabolites; microbiome.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Chart of metabolic pathways with highlighted examples of microbiome-derived or -modulated pathways involved in modulation of the immune response. (ILCs) Innate lymphoid cells; (IELs) intraepithelial lymphocytes. The pathway map was obtained from the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG; http://www.kegg.jp/pathway/map01100) (Kanehisa and Goto 2000; Kanehisa et al. 2016).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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