Capacity of a Microbial Synbiotic To Rescue the <i>In Vitro</i> Metabolic Activity of the Gut Microbiome following Perturbation with Alcohol or Antibiotics
Braden Tierney, Pieter Van den Abbeele, Gabriel A. Al‐Ghalith, Lynn Verstrepen, Jonas Ghyselinck, Marta Calatayud, Massimo Marzorati, Azza A. Gadir, Brendan A. Daisley, Gregor Reid, Peter A. Bron, Dirk Gevers, Raja Dhir, Sheri L. Simmons
Abstract
system modeling the gut microbiome to investigate whether treatment with a microbial synbiotic can help restore microbiome function after stress. We find that a complex gut community treated with alcohol or antibiotics showed reduced levels of production of short-chain fatty acids, which are critical beneficial molecules produced by a healthy gut microbiota. Treatment of stressed communities with a microbial synbiotic resulted in the recovery of SCFA production as well as an increase in the abundance of beneficial commensal organisms. Our results suggest that treatment with a microbial synbiotic has the potential to restore healthy gut microbiome function after stress and merits further investigation in clinical studies.