Abstract
There is an ever-increasing appreciation for our gut microbiota that plays a crucial role in the maintenance of health, as well as the development of disease. Probiotics are live bacteria that are consumed to increase the population of beneficial bacteria and prebiotics are dietary substrates intended to promote the propagation of beneficial bacteria. In order to optimize the use of probiotics and prebiotics, a more complete biochemical understanding of the impact that these treatments have on the community and functioning of the gut microbiota is required. Nucleic acid sequencing methods can provide highly detailed information on the composition of the microbial communities but provide less information on the actual function. As bacteria impart much of their influence on the host through the production of metabolites, there is much to be learned by the application of metabolomics. The focus of this review is on the use of metabolomics in the study of probiotic and prebiotic treatments in the context of human clinical trials. Assessment of the current state of this research will help guide the design of future studies to further elucidate the biochemical mechanism by which probiotics and prebiotics function and pave the way toward more personalized applications.
Highlights
Research in the area of probiotic and prebiotic interventions has increased exponentially in recent decades
As defined by the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics, probiotics are live microorganisms that confer a health benefit on the host when administered in adequate amounts, whereas prebiotics are substrates that are selectively utilized by host microorganisms conferring a health benefit [1]
The focus of this review is to evaluate the current state of the science in analyzing the effects of probiotics and prebiotics in the context of human clinical trials
Summary
Research in the area of probiotic and prebiotic interventions has increased exponentially in recent decades. In the study by Martin et al, the ability of probiotics and prebiotics to impact the fecal metabolome was evaluated in three sets of mice with three distinct microbiota compositions [13]. The focus will only include those studies which employed a discovery-based metabolomics approach to more completely interrogate the action of prebiotics and probiotics on human health. Careful review yielded 15 studies that reported results from some form of human clinical trial and included a discovery-based metabolomics approach. These studies were found to focus on five main areas of health and the results of these studies will be described below.
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