Abstract
The human intestine harbors a huge number of diverse microorganisms where a variety of complex interactions take place between the microbes as well as the host and gut microbiota. Significant long-term variations in the gut microbiota (dysbiosis) have been associated with a variety of health conditions including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Conventional fecal microbiota transplantations (FMTs) have been utilized to treat IBD and have been proved promising. However, various limitations such as transient results, pathogen transfer, storage, and reproducibility render conventional FMT less safe and less sustainable. Defined synthetic microbial communities (SynCom) have been used to dissect the host-microbiota-associated functions using gnotobiotic animals or in vitro cell models. This review focuses on the potential use of SynCom in IBD and its advantages and relative safety over conventional FMT. Additionally, this review reinforces how various technological advances could be combined with SynCom to have a better understanding of the complex microbial interactions in various gut inflammatory diseases including IBD. Some technological advances including the availability of a gut-on-a-chip system, intestinal organoids, ex vivo intestinal cultures, AI-based refining of the microbiome structural and functional data, and multiomic approaches may help in making more practical in vitro models of the human host. Additionally, an increase in the cultured diversity from gut microbiota and the availability of their genomic information would further make the design and utilization of SynCom more feasible. Taken together, the combined use of the available knowledge of the gut microbiota in health and disease and recent technological advances and the development of defined SynCom seem to be a promising, safe, and sustainable alternative to conventional FMT in treating IBD.
Highlights
The intestinal tract of the majority of animals including human beings is colonized by complex microbial communities since birth, called the microbiome
This is because fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) has shown promising results in treating a variety of diseases, indicating that the intestinal microbiota does play a role in influencing the physiology and health of the host
This review focuses on the potential application of FMT in treating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) as well as various challenges and limitations associated with conventional FMT therapies
Summary
The intestinal tract of the majority of animals including human beings is colonized by complex microbial communities since birth, called the microbiome. The recent technological advances and utilization of a variety of accurate approaches have further made it possible to monitor and accurately analyze the intestinal microbial community composition and how the functionality and structure of the microbiome vary in healthy and diseased individuals This has led to remarkable success in correlating the microbiome in health and disease. FMT-based interventions in humans recently caught the attention of the scientific community This is because FMT has shown promising results in treating a variety of diseases, indicating that the intestinal microbiota does play a role in influencing the physiology and health of the host. The treatment regimen of IBD consists of antiinflammatory agents such as 5-aminosalicylates (5-ASAs), corticosteroids, immunosuppressants, and biologic agents such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) antagonists, anti-interleukins, and anti-integrins These drugs can induce and maintain remission from inflammatory episodes; they can cause serious side effects including increased risk of infections and certain cancers [29]. An utmost need is existing to find an alternative, safe, and effective therapeutic strategy for IBD therapy
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