EDITO
Marc BONNEVILLE
CSO institut Mérieux
Dear readers,
As the number of studies in the microbiota field increases exponentially, we are now well aware of the profound implications this evolving field could have on our understanding of biological, medical or environmental processes. It relies on complex interplays between tremendously diverse microbial communities.
This fourth “Microbiota” letter focuses on new clinical developments that rely either on a better knowledge of microbial communities that populate our organisms or direct therapeutic use of microbiota or microbiota-derived products.
The various applications of microbiome research include new stratification tools to better predict efficacy or side effects of treatments, as well as new therapeutics based on the use of prebiotics, probiotics or fecal transplants. These are herein reviewed, as well as key industrial players in these areas. This letter further describes interventional approaches using antimicrobial peptides, fecal microbiota transplantation and phagotherapy, which could represent promising alternatives to antibiotherapy.
While microbiome studies have already yielded promising clinical developments, we still face many challenges. More mechanistic work to assess the causal relationships between microbiota alterations and diseases are needed. Additionally, many technical and regulatory hurdles should be addressed to improve standardization of microbiome monitoring and microbiota-derived therapeutic products.
Thanks to its broad services offer, integrating CRO activities and microbiome analysis, Biofortis Mérieux NutriSciences contributes to the worldwide collaborative efforts to tackle these various challenges.