Managing Glucose Homeostasis Through the Gut Microbiome

The gut microbiota is a salient contributor to the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) as a vast and complex metabolic cross talk that exists between the bacteria residing in the gastrointestinal tract and the host. This cross talk is largely influenced by external factors including diet, highlighting a potential avenue to effectively manipulate the gut microbiota to treat metabolic diseases such as diabetes. In this review, we discuss the influence of the gut microbiota on T2D development and targeting gut microbiota in both current and novel treatments for T2D, highlighting potential alternative therapies including fecal microbiota transplant, prebiotics, probiotics, synbiotics, or xenobiotics. A better understanding of both the impact of the gut microbiota in the etiology of diabetes and the therapeutic potential for manipulating the gut microbiota in metabolic disease could usher in a new approach to targeted treatment options to ameliorate T2D.