The medical research of the last 1-2 decades allows us to look at the human gut microbiota and microbiome as to a structure that can promote health and sometimes initiate disease. It works like an endocrine organ: releasing specific metabolites, using environmental inputs, e.g. diet, or acting through its structural compounds, that signal human host receptors, to finally contributing to the pathogenesis of several gastrointestinal and non-gastrointestinal diseases. The same commensal microbes were found as shapers of the human host response to drugs (cardiovascular, oncology etc.). New technologies played an important role in these achievements, facilitating analysis of the genetic and metabolic profile of this microbial community. Once the inputs, the pathways and a lot of human host receptors were highlighted, the scientists were encouraged to go further into research, in order to develop new pathogenic therapies, targeting the human gut flora. Dual therapies, evolving these “friend microbes”, are another actual research subjects. This review gives an update on the current knowledge in the area of microbiota disbalances under environmental factors, the contribution of gut microbiota and microbiome to the pathogenesis of obesity, obesity associated metabolic disorders and cardiovascular disease, as well as new perspectives in preventing and treating these diseases, with high prevalence in contemporary, economically developed societies. It brings the latest and most relevant evidences relating to: probiotics, prebiotics, polyphenols and fecal microbiota transplantation, dietary nutrient manipulation, microbial as well as human host enzyme manipulation, shaping human responses to currently used drugs, manipulating the gut microbiome by horizontal gene transfer.
Food Additives and Contaminants: Effects on Human Gut Microbiota—A Review
