Restoring the Microbiome
How to restore the Microbiome?
Having established that disturbed and depleted microbiomes are disrupting the healthy function of metaorganisms, ultimately leading to disease, scientists began to explore possibilities to manipulate the microbial composition of the body in an attempt to restore health. It became clear that it is indeed possible to change microbiome compositions through different interventions. Those advances in host-microbe research fuelled expectations that the microbiome might be a future therapeutic target to treat metabolic diseases related to dysbiosis. Find out how the experts address the question if and how the microbiome could be restored?
Hopes are high that changing the microbiome will offer the chance to improve or even heal different environmental conditions, applying a number of new approaches that stem from metaorganism research. At the same time, the sheer complexity of host-microbiome interactions still makes it impossible today to even define what a healthy microbiome actually is, rendering microbiome interventions at present mostly experimentation that still require major advances in research. Despite a number of recurring bacterial species that always seem to be part of the human microbiota, a healthy microbiome composition might indeed be completely individual and differ largely between humans. Still, different approaches are being discussed that include interventions via diet, pre- or probiotics in an attempt to change the microbial colonization of individuals suffering from microbiome related diseases. Here, our experts give answers on the state of those different approaches and the challenges arising in the effort to restore a healthy microbiome.