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Review
. 2021 Nov 15:10:goab046.
doi: 10.1093/gastro/goab046. eCollection 2022.

Microbiome therapeutics: exploring the present scenario and challenges

Affiliations
Review

Microbiome therapeutics: exploring the present scenario and challenges

Monika Yadav et al. Gastroenterol Rep (Oxf). .

Abstract

Human gut-microbiome explorations have enriched our understanding of microbial colonization, maturation, and dysbiosis in health-and-disease subsets. The enormous metabolic potential of gut microbes and their role in the maintenance of human health is emerging, with new avenues to use them as therapeutic agents to overcome human disorders. Microbiome therapeutics are aimed at engineering the gut microbiome using additive, subtractive, or modulatory therapy with an application of native or engineered microbes, antibiotics, bacteriophages, and bacteriocins. This approach could overcome the limitation of conventional therapeutics by providing personalized, harmonized, reliable, and sustainable treatment. Its huge economic potential has been shown in the global therapeutics market. Despite the therapeutic and economical potential, microbiome therapeutics is still in the developing stage and is facing various technical and administrative issues that require research attention. This review aims to address the current knowledge and landscape of microbiome therapeutics, provides an overview of existing health-and-disease applications, and discusses the potential future directions of microbiome modulations.

Keywords: engineered microbiome; fecal microbiome transplantation; human microbiome; microbiome therapeutics; prebiotics; probiotics.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Role of microbiome augmentation in the maintenance of healthy life
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Overview of the strategies used as microbiome therapeutics
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
The differential functions of fecal microbiota transplantation and probiotics in treating human disorders
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Challenges associated with the field of microbiome therapeutics

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