Gut Microbiota Metabolism and Interaction with Food Components

Abstract

The human gut contains trillions of microbes that play a central role in host biology, including the provision of key nutrients from the diet. Food is a major source of precursors for metabolite production; in fact, diet modulates the gut microbiota (GM) as the nutrients, derived from dietary intake, reach the GM, affecting both the ecosystem and microbial metabolic profile. GM metabolic ability has an impact on human nutritional status from childhood. However, there is a wide variability of dietary patterns that exist among individuals. The study of interactions with the host via GM metabolic pathways is an interesting field of research in medicine, as microbiota members produce myriads of molecules with many bioactive properties. Indeed, much evidence has demonstrated the importance of metabolites produced by the bacterial metabolism from foods at the gut level that dynamically participate in various biochemical mechanisms of a cell as a reaction to environmental stimuli. Hence, the GM modulate homeostasis at the gut level, and the alteration in their composition can concur in disease onset or progression, including immunological, inflammatory, and metabolic disorders, as well as cancer. Understanding the gut microbe-nutrient interactions will increase our knowledge of how diet affects host health and disease, thus enabling personalized therapeutics and nutrition.

Keywords: diet; metabolome; microbiome therapeutics; microbiota metabolism.

Figure 1

Dietary effect on gut microbiota and health. The gut microbiota takes part in the digestion of food ingredients and in the regulation of host metabolic functions. The nutrient-dependent impact of commensal bacteria to the eubiosis and dysbiosis, thereby the health and disease status, is caused by the production of several microbial metabolites.

Figure 2

Gut microbiota modulation. Beneficial effect on the intestinal environment through microbial composition modification, by using probiotic, prebiotic, and postbiotic administration and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT). All these approaches can be optimized by patient-tailored treatments for the better management of the individual’s physiology and pathology.