Abstract

RELEVANCE OF GUT MICROBIOTA IN HEALTH, DISEASE AND PRODUCTION OF ANTIMICROBIAL SUBSTANCES

Karim Naghmouchi*

.

Abstract

Gut microbiota is the collection of bacteria that inhabit in the gastrointestinal tract producing a diverse ecosystem about 1014 microorganisms. The majority of the gut microbiota is composed of five phyla, namely Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Cerrucomicrobia, in which the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes phyla is >90%. Numerous diseases are associated with an imbalance in gut microbiota communities, including obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, cancer, immune system dysfunction, depression and cardiovascular diseases. The immune system–microbiota alliance allows the induction of protective responses to pathogens and the maintenance of regulatory pathways involved in the innocuous antigens tolerance. The human microbiome gut (HMG) is modulated with prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics to potentially aid in diseases treatment. HMG can metabolize not only a variety of chemical synthesis drugs but also many natural products and can be represented as an appropriate ‘druggable’ target. Gut Microbiota intestinal flora could be considered as a new drug target to provide new opportunities for exploring the host-microbiome relationship to develop more effective and safer therapies.

Keywords: Human Gut microbiota, probiotics, diseases, bacteriocin, antimicrobials, druggable’ target.