Curr Opin Microbiol. 2023 Apr 14;74:102319. doi: 10.1016/j.mib.2023.102319.Online ahead of print.

Nicolas Benech ¹, Harry Sokol ²

Author information

¹Hospices Civils de Lyon, Lyon, France; Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, France; Tumor Escape Resistance and Immunity Department, Cancer Research Center of Lyon (CRCL), Inserm U1052, CNRS UMR 5286, Lyon, France; French Fecal Transplant Group, France.

²French Fecal Transplant Group, France; Sorbonne University, INSERM UMRS-938, Centre de Recherche Saint-Antoine, CRSA, AP-HP, Paris, France; Gastroenterology department, Saint Antoine Hospital, APHP, Paris, France; Paris Center for Microbiome Medicine (PaCeMM) FHU, Paris, France; INRAe, AgroParisTech, Micalis institute, Jouy-en-Josas, France. Electronic address: harry.sokol@aphp.fr.

Abstract

The gut microbiota is now recognized to be a key driver of mucosal inflammation in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Robust functional and compositional alterations of the gut microbiota have been described in IBD with a reduction in bacterial diversity, a reduction in some anti-inflammatory anaerobic bacteria, and an increase in bacteria with pro-inflammatory potential. However, despite 15 years of active research, therapeutical applications are still lacking. Recent studies have shed new light on how targeting the gut microbiota can be beneficial in IBD with fecal microbiota transplantation, next-generation probiotics, and phage therapy. Given the similarities in dysfunction and structure of the gut microbiota between IBD and other chronic conditions associated with intestinal inflammation, such as celiac disease, Familial Mediterranean Fever, or common variable immunodeficiency, common therapeutic strategies targeting the host-microbiota symbiosis may be applied in these different conditions.