The
role of gut microbes in the metabolism of xenobiotics is known from
almost three decades. It is one of the most important field now a
days, as the activity and toxicity of xenobiotics is primarily
dependent upon the gut microbial profile. The diverse and huge
metabolic enzymes of gut microbes are the workhorses of this
metabolic activity. The population specific differences in
the gut microflora show well correlation with the activity
of these gut microbes in modulating the biotransformation of
these xenobiotics.
Recently reports have shown the major impact of the gut microflora on the pharmacological properties of a drugs. Therefore, the gut metagenomic studies focusing on the gut metagenomic potential of these gut microbes will be crucial in the field of precision medicine. For more details you can go through the article published in nature reviews titled as "The microbial pharmacists within us: a metagenomic view of xenobiotic metabolism". The article is freely available at http://www.nature.com/nrmicro/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nrmicro.2016.17.html .
