Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Service de Pneumologie, CHUV, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Service de Pneumologie, CHUV, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Pharmacol Ther. 2014 Jan;141(1):32-9. doi: 10.1016/j.pharmthera.2013.08.002. Epub 2013 Aug 19.
Increasingly the development of novel therapeutic strategies is taking into consideration the contribution of the intestinal microbiota to health and disease. Dysbiosis of the microbial communities colonizing the human intestinal tract has been described for a variety of chronic diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, obesity and asthma. In particular, reduction of several so-called probiotic species including Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria that are generally considered to be beneficial, as well as an outgrowth of potentially pathogenic bacteria is often reported. Thus a tempting therapeutic approach is to shape the constituents of the microbiota in an attempt to restore the microbial balance towards the growth of 'health-promoting' bacterial species. A twist to this scenario is the recent discovery that the respiratory tract also harbors a microbiota under steady-state conditions. Investigators have shown that the microbial composition of the airway flora is different between healthy lungs and those with chronic lung diseases, such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as well as cystic fibrosis. This is an emerging field, and thus far there is very limited data showing a direct contribution of the airway microbiota to the onset and progression of disease. However, should future studies provide such evidence, the airway microbiota might soon join the intestinal microbiota as a target for therapeutic intervention. In this review, we highlight the major advances that have been made describing the microbiota in chronic lung disease and discuss current and future approaches concerning manipulation of the microbiota for the treatment and prevention of disease.
越来越多的新型治疗策略的发展开始考虑肠道微生物群对健康和疾病的贡献。人类肠道定植的微生物群落失调已在多种慢性疾病中得到描述，如炎症性肠病、肥胖症和哮喘。特别是，通常被认为有益的几种所谓的益生菌物种（如乳杆菌和双歧杆菌）的减少，以及潜在致病性细菌的过度生长，经常被报道。因此，一种诱人的治疗方法是塑造微生物群的组成，试图恢复微生物平衡，促进“促进健康”细菌的生长。这种情况出现了一个转折，即最近发现呼吸道在稳定状态下也存在微生物群。研究人员表明，健康肺部和患有慢性肺部疾病（如哮喘、慢性阻塞性肺疾病和囊性纤维化）的气道菌群的微生物组成是不同的。这是一个新兴领域，到目前为止，只有非常有限的数据表明气道微生物群直接参与了疾病的发生和进展。然而，如果未来的研究提供了这样的证据，那么气道微生物群可能很快就会像肠道微生物群一样成为治疗干预的目标。在这篇综述中，我们重点介绍了在慢性肺部疾病中描述微生物群的主要进展，并讨论了当前和未来关于操纵微生物群治疗和预防疾病的方法。
