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Review
. 2022 Sep 13:12:875513.
doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2022.875513. eCollection 2022.

The science behind TCM and Gut microbiota interaction-their combinatorial approach holds promising therapeutic applications

Wenrui Xia  1 , Bei Liu  2 , Shiyun Tang  3 , Muhammad Yasir  4 , Imran Khan  5
Affiliations
Review

The science behind TCM and Gut microbiota interaction-their combinatorial approach holds promising therapeutic applications

Wenrui Xia et al. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. .

Erratum in

Abstract

The trend toward herbal medicine as an alternative treatment for disease medication is increasing worldwide. However, insufficient pharmacologic information is available about the orally taken medicines. Not only herbal medicine, but also Western drugs, when passing through the gastrointestinal tract, interact with trillions of microbes (known as the gut microbiome [GM]) and their enzymes. Gut microbiome enzymes induce massive structural and functional changes to the herbal products and impact the bioavailability and efficacy of the herbal therapeutics. Therefore, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) researchers extend the horizon of TCM research to the GM to better understand TCM pharmacology and enhance its efficacy and bioavailability. The study investigating the interaction between herbal medicine and gut microbes utilizes the holistic approach, making landmark achievements in the field of disease prognosis and treatment. The effectiveness of TCM is a multipathway modulation, and so is the GM. This review provides an insight into the understanding of a holistic view of TCM and GM interaction. Furthermore, this review briefly describes the mechanism of how the TCM-GM interaction deals with various illnesses.

Keywords: Chinese medicine; TCM; TCM-bacteria interaction; TCM-microbiota interaction; gut microbiota; medicine; prebiotics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
TCM–GM combinatorial therapeutic effect, taking polysaccharides as an example. Dietary and medicinal fibers are converted into SCFAs by the action of the GM. SCFAs are an energy source for colonocytes and possess other health-promoting abilities; a few of these abilities are displayed in the figure.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Graphic illustration of the TCM effect on GM composition and gene expression and a guide to investigate the TCM–GM interaction. This illustration shows the direct effect of TCM on GM composition. TCM intake promotes growth of certain bacteria; for instance, in the case of saponins, B animalis and L. reuteri become abundant. To check how TCM modulates the genome expression of microbes, target bacteria should be culture in vitro in the presence of TCM, and their growth kinetics and gene expression should be monitored. In the case of saponins, it is observed that saponins promote the expression of genes involved in metabolism and biogenesis that contribute to promoting growth of these bacteria in a habitat.
Figure 3
Figure 3
A schematic diagram displaying the interaction between TCM and GM.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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