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Scientific findings about microbiome in 2019

In 2019, microbiome field has several breakthroughs due to multidisciplinary research on host-microbiota interactions. A paper entitled “Hype or Hope?” published by Nature Reviews Microbiology, discussed the promising future of microbiome research which aims to promote human health. It is stated that some microbiome-based therapeutics such as probiotics and prebiotics are already on the market or in development thanks to the rapidly evolving microbiome research. Scientific evidence has shown associations between microbiome and metabolic diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, fatty liver disease, cancer, and diabetes. For example, a mouse study in 2015 shows that two commonly used dietary emulsifiers carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and polysorbate 80 (P80) can potentially cause inflammatory bowel diseases, weight gain, and other metabolic syndromes.

When investigating host-microbiota interactions, animal model organisms are taken into careful considerations. Even though mice are traditional experimental animals that have similar physiological characteristics to that of humans, Angela Douglas argues that simple animal models such as flies, worms, and zebrafish have unique advantages. With relatively short life spans, they are more time-efficient and cost-effective. This allows complex experiment designs and genetics screen.

These findings have strong potential to be applied to human health by microbiota-based nutrition. Upon the realization that there may be no one-size-fits-all diet, a recent review paper stated that host-derived factors can influence diet-microbiota alterations in multiple ways. Thus, scientists still need to overcome the complexity of person-specific host, microbiota, and diet interactions.