Drug and gut microbe relationships: Moving beyond antibiotics

Abstract

Our understanding of drug-microbe relationships has evolved from viewing microbes as mere drug producers to a dynamic, modifiable system where they can serve as drugs or targets of precision pharmacology. This review highlights recent findings on the gut microbiome, particularly focusing on four aspects of research: (i) drugs for bugs, covering recent strategies for targeting gut pathogens; (ii) bugs as drugs, including probiotics; (iii) drugs from bugs, including postbiotics; and (iv) bugs and drugs, discussing additional types of drug-microbe interactions. This review provides a perspective on future translational research, including efficient companion diagnostics in pharmaceutical interventions.

Keywords: antimicrobial peptides (AMPs); drug discovery; fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT); live biotherapeutics; microbial pharmacogenomics; microbiome; multiomics integration; phage therapy; probiotics and prebiotics; therapeutic targets.