Toward the development of defined microbial therapeutics

The collection of micro-organisms living in the mammalian gastrointestinal tract, termed the gut microbiota, has been shown to have profound impacts on host health and increasingly is regarded as a viable therapeutic target. Clinical studies of fecal microbiota transplantation have demonstrated potential efficacy of microbiota-based therapies for diseases including Clostridioides difficile infections, inflammatory bowel disease, graft-versus-host disease and cancer. However, the lack of understanding of the active ingredients and potential risks of such therapies pose challenges for clinical application. Meanwhile, efforts are being made to identify effector microbes directly associated with a given phenotype, to establish causality and to devise well-characterized microbial therapeutics for clinical use. Strategies based on defined microbial components will likely enhance the potential of microbiota-targeted therapies.

Automated summary

The gut microbiota has significant impacts on host health and is increasingly being viewed as a potential therapeutic target. Clinical studies of microbiota-based therapies, such as fecal microbiota transplantation, have shown efficacy for diseases like Clostridioides difficile infections, inflammatory bowel disease, graft-versus-host disease, and cancer. However, the lack of understanding of the active ingredients and risks of such therapies presents challenges for clinical application, and efforts are underway to identify specific microbes associated with certain phenotypes for well-characterized microbial therapeutics.