Microbiome-Based Products: Therapeutic Potential for Inflammatory Skin Diseases

Abstract

Maintaining a balanced skin microbiota is essential for skin health, whereas disruptions in skin microbiota composition, known as dysbiosis, can contribute to the onset and progression of various skin disorders. Microbiota dysbiosis has been associated with several inflammatory skin conditions, including atopic dermatitis, seborrheic dermatitis, acne, psoriasis, and rosacea. Recent advances in high-throughput sequencing and metagenomic analyses have provided a deeper understanding of the skin microbial communities in both health and disease. These discoveries are now being translated into novel therapeutic approaches aimed at restoring microbial balance and promoting skin health through microbiome-based interventions. Unlike conventional therapies that often disrupt the microbiota and lead to side effects or resistance, microbiome-based products offer a more targeted strategy for preventing and managing inflammatory skin diseases. These products, which include probiotics, prebiotics, postbiotics, and live biotherapeutic agents, are designed to modulate the skin ecosystem by enhancing beneficial microbial populations, suppressing pathogenic strains, and enhancing immune tolerance. As a result, they represent a promising class of products with the potential to prevent, manage, and even reverse inflammatory skin conditions. However, realizing the full therapeutic potential of microbiome-based strategies in dermatology will require continued research, robust clinical validation, and clear regulatory frameworks.

Keywords: dysbiosis; human microbiota; inflammatory skin disease; microbiome-based products.

Figure 1

(a) General overall composition of normal human skin microbiota; (b) Difference in composition of microbiota across different parts of human skin: moist, dry and sebaceous. Figure based on data from Grice et al. [32].

Figure 2

Overview of microbiome-based products (MBPs) and their bioactive properties and applications. MBPs range from less characterized, donor-dependent approaches like microbiota transplantation and whole ecosystem-based products, to highly defined and controlled interventions such as rationally designed microbial consortia, live biotherapeutic products (LBPs), non-living biotherapeutics, and phage therapies.