Beyond Fecal Microbiota Transplantation: Developing Drugs from the Microbiome
Ylaine Gerardin, Sonia Timberlake, Jessica R. Allegretti, Mark Smith, Zain Kassam
Abstract
The transfer of live gut microbes may transform patient care across a range of autoimmune, metabolic, hepatic, and infectious diseases. One early approach, fecal microbiota transplantation, has shown promise in Clostridiodes difficile infection and the potential for improving clinical and public health outcomes for other antibiotic-resistant bacteria. These clinical successes have motivated the development of microbiome drugs, which will need to address challenges in safety, uniformity, and delivery while seeking to preserve the benefits of using whole microbiome communities as novel therapeutics and an innovative platform for drug discovery.
Topics & Concepts
Fecal bacteriotherapyMicrobiomeTransplantationGut microbiomeIntensive care medicineAntibioticsMedicineClostridium difficileImmunologyBiologyBioinformaticsMicrobiologyInternal medicineClostridium difficile and Clostridium perfringens researchHelicobacter pylori-related gastroenterology studiesGastrointestinal motility and disorders