The Human Microbiome

The human microbiome is the collection of microbes and their genes that inhabit and interact with the human body. Microbes and genes in the microbiome outnumber human cells and genes. As the microbiome plays an extensive role in different diseases, it is emerging as a highly promising target for potential therapeutics. The microbiome maintains the homeostasis of the body and can be used to prevent and treat various diseases. Generally, microbiome-based therapy includes fecal microbiota transplants, probiotic, prebiotic, and postbiotic supplements, and synbiotics, which are studied for their therapeutic properties in various diseases like gastrointestinal disorders, cancer, inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), and respiratory diseases. Recently the FDA approved a microbiome-based therapy, fecal microbiota transplantation, which was successfully studied in Clostridium difficile infections with an over 85% cure rate to prevent future recurrence. Probiotics and prebiotics proliferate specific microbial species that produce beneficial metabolites. Administration of short chain fatty acids, which is a microbiome metabolite-based therapy, showed significant results against IBD in animal models. Further studies are required to overcome the barriers for wide application of microbiome-based therapy. This review chapter provides a brief insight into microbiome-based therapies that could be developed into potentially precise, tailor-made medicines for treating various diseases.