Human gut microbiome: hopes, threats and promises
Top Cited Papers
Open Access
- 22 June 2018
- Vol. 67 (9), 1716-1725
- https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2018-316723
Abstract
The microbiome has received increasing attention over the last 15 years. Although gut microbes have been explored for several decades, investigations of the role of microorganisms that reside in the human gut has attracted much attention beyond classical infectious diseases. For example, numerous studies have reported changes in the gut microbiota during not only obesity, diabetes, and liver diseases but also cancer and even neurodegenerative diseases. The human gut microbiota is viewed as a potential source of novel therapeutics. Between 2013 and 2017, the number of publications focusing on the gut microbiota was, remarkably, 12 900, which represents four-fifths of the total number of publications over the last 40 years that investigated this topic. This review discusses recent evidence of the impact of the gut microbiota on metabolic disorders and focus on selected key mechanisms. This review also aims to provide a critical analysis of the current knowledge in this field, identify putative key issues or problems and discuss misinterpretations. The abundance of metagenomic data generated on comparing diseased and healthy subjects can lead to the erroneous claim that a bacterium is causally linked with the protection or the onset of a disease. In fact, environmental factors such as dietary habits, drug treatments, intestinal motility and stool frequency and consistency are all factors that influence the composition of the microbiota and should be considered. The cases of the bacteria Prevotella copri and Akkermansia muciniphila will be discussed as key examples.Keywords
Funding Information
- FP7 Ideas: European Research Council
- Funds Baillet-Latour
- Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS
- WELBIO
This publication has 133 references indexed in Scilit:
- Human Gut Microbiota Changes Reveal the Progression of Glucose IntolerancePLOS ONE, 2013
- Cross-talk between Akkermansia muciniphila and intestinal epithelium controls diet-induced obesityProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2013
- Intestinal microbiota metabolism of l-carnitine, a nutrient in red meat, promotes atherosclerosisNature Medicine, 2013
- An opportunistic pathogen isolated from the gut of an obese human causes obesity in germfree miceThe ISME Journal, 2012
- Gut microbiota-derived propionate reduces cancer cell proliferation in the liverBritish Journal of Cancer, 2012
- Responses of Gut Microbiota and Glucose and Lipid Metabolism to Prebiotics in Genetic Obese and Diet-Induced Leptin-Resistant MiceDiabetes, 2011
- Bacterial Endotoxin Activity in Human Serum Is Associated With Dyslipidemia, Insulin Resistance, Obesity, and Chronic InflammationDiabetes Care, 2011
- Endotoxemia Is Associated With an Increased Risk of Incident DiabetesDiabetes Care, 2011
- Regulation of inflammatory responses by gut microbiota and chemoattractant receptor GPR43Nature, 2009
- An obesity-associated gut microbiome with increased capacity for energy harvestNature, 2006