Institute for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA, USA.
eScience Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Gut Microbes. 2021 Jan-Dec;13(1):1-20. doi: 10.1080/19490976.2021.1907270.
Many studies link the composition of the human gut microbiome to aberrant health states. However, our understanding of what constitutes a 'healthy' gut ecosystem, and how to effectively monitor and maintain it, are only now emerging. Here, we review current approaches to defining and monitoring gut microbiome health, and outline directions for developing targeted ecological therapeutics. We emphasize the importance of identifying which ecological features of the gut microbiome are most resonant with host molecular phenotypes, and highlight certain gut microbial metabolites as potential biomarkers of gut microbiome health. We further discuss how multi-omic measurements of host phenotypes, dietary information, and gut microbiome profiles can be integrated into increasingly sophisticated host-microbiome mechanistic models that can be leveraged to design personalized interventions. Overall, we summarize current progress on defining microbiome health and highlight a number of paths forward for engineering the ecology of the gut to promote wellness.
许多研究将人类肠道微生物组的组成与异常健康状态联系起来。然而，我们对什么构成“健康”的肠道生态系统，以及如何有效地监测和维持它的理解，才刚刚开始出现。在这里，我们回顾了目前定义和监测肠道微生物组健康的方法，并概述了开发靶向生态治疗的方向。我们强调了确定肠道微生物组中与宿主分子表型最相关的生态特征的重要性，并强调了某些肠道微生物代谢物作为肠道微生物组健康潜在生物标志物的重要性。我们进一步讨论了如何将宿主表型、饮食信息和肠道微生物组谱的多组学测量整合到越来越复杂的宿主-微生物组机制模型中，这些模型可以被用来设计个性化的干预措施。总的来说，我们总结了目前在定义微生物组健康方面的进展，并强调了许多前进的道路，以设计肠道生态工程，促进健康。
