Hern Kelsey E, Prindle Arthur
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA; Center for Synthetic Biology, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA; Center for Synthetic Biology, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA; Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA; Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2025 Aug 6;225:115662. doi: 10.1016/j.addr.2025.115662.
The known roles of human-associated microbes in health and disease have expanded in recent years. While the gut microbiome is the most well studied, the airway microbiome is gaining attention as an important gatekeeper of respiratory health. Compared to the gut, the airway microbiome has lower species complexity, greater niche stability, and represents an immediate point of contact with the outside world. These features make it an attractive target for improving respiratory health. As respiratory disease continues to increase among humans, it will be critical to develop novel approaches to combat new and emergent bacterial infections, viruses, and cancers for which we do not currently have treatments. This review seeks to define strategies for airway microbiome engineering-the intentional manipulation of airway associated microbes to restore species balance, enhance protective functions, or treat disease. We summarize the growing body of literature linking the airway microbiome to respiratory health and discuss both broad-spectrum and high precision technologies that hold particular promise for further development. We argue that inhaled probiotics and bacteriophage are among the most attractive technologies for clinical translation of airway microbiome engineering to improve respiratory health.
近年来，与人类相关的微生物在健康和疾病中的已知作用不断扩展。虽然肠道微生物群是研究最深入的，但气道微生物群作为呼吸健康的重要守门人正受到越来越多的关注。与肠道相比，气道微生物群的物种复杂性较低，生态位稳定性较高，并且是与外界直接接触的部位。这些特征使其成为改善呼吸健康的一个有吸引力的目标。随着人类呼吸系统疾病持续增加，开发新方法来对抗我们目前尚无治疗手段的新型和新兴细菌感染、病毒及癌症至关重要。本综述旨在确定气道微生物群工程的策略——有意操纵与气道相关的微生物以恢复物种平衡、增强保护功能或治疗疾病。我们总结了将气道微生物群与呼吸健康联系起来的越来越多的文献，并讨论了对进一步发展具有特别前景的广谱和高精度技术。我们认为，吸入益生菌和噬菌体是将气道微生物群工程转化为临床应用以改善呼吸健康最具吸引力的技术之一。
