Gut is
a shelter for various microbes where they live symbiotically with the host. In
this symbiotic relationship, these microbes utilizes the resources from the
host to survive and in return regulates the metabolic machinery of the host. In
hosts, exposure to these microbes begins at the time of birth and works as
building blocks of infant gut microbiota and overall health in future. Several
factors influences the colonization of microbes inside the infant gut, such as,
mode of delivery, the diet of infant (selective substrates), treatment of
antibiotics, enrichment of selective microbes and external environment.
The
gut microbiota contribute to immune tolerance (by eliminating invading
pathogens), intestinal homeostasis and healthy metabolism. http://www.nature.com/nri/journal/v9/n5/execsumm/nri2515.html http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3337124/
Dysbiosis,
means disruption of the regular gut microbial composition. This is associated
with the various disorders such as:
1)
Immune diseases: atrophy, asthma, multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid
arthritis (RA), experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis and type -1
diabetes. For details read http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3337124/
2)
Intestinal diseases: irritable bowel
syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) (including
ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease),
necrotizing enterocolitis and colon cancer. For details read http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3667473/
3)
Metabolic diseases: type-2 diabetes, atherosclerosis and obesity for
details read http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/62/10/3341.full http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4483604/
4)
Cardiovascular diseases: metabolic interaction
between host and microbes in the development of cardiovascular diseases is the
new field of study. For details read http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v18/n8/abs/nm.2895.html
5) Liver diseases: alcoholic liver disease and hepatocarcinogenesis. For detail read http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4323444/
6) Blood diseases: haematopoiesis
and hematologic disorders. For detail read http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4504946/ http://www.bloodjournal.org/content/126/3/311?sso-checked=true
7)
Brain diseases: role of gut microbiota in the regulation of anxiety, mood, cognition and pain has been discussed. http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v13/n10/full/nrn3346.html http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25390799
The field is growing rapidly as facilitated by new, faster and cheaper sequencing technologies. Now, researchers are more interested and trying to find out how the specific microbes related with the disease phenotype? Understanding of host-microbes interactions using metabolomics approaches help us to understand the complete mechanism.
