preprints.org > biology and life sciences > immunology and microbiology > doi: 10.20944/preprints202401.0778.v1

Preprint Review Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Version 1 : Received: 9 January 2024 / Approved: 10 January 2024 / Online: 10 January 2024 (10:05:29 CET)

Although global life expectancy has increased over the past 20 years due to improvements in managing infectious diseases, one in five people still succumbs to infections. Humanity is tirelessly working towards developing vaccines and antimicrobial agents in response to this ongoing threat. However, pathogens continue to acquire numerous resistance mechanisms and proliferate. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted us to recognize that focusing solely on the killing strategies of immunology and microbiology in complex and multisystemic infectious diseases is insufficient for understanding survival. In essence, there is a need for a treatment approach centered on disease tolerance, capable of alleviating pathology and/or promoting physiological functions in conjunction with the existing strategies of host immune response and pathogen destruction. Against this backdrop, this narrative review comprehends and introduces microbiome therapeutics, which recently garnered attention as next-generation treatments regarding two defense strategies against infectious diseases. First, we delineate the application of existing probiotics and then the microbiome in infectious diseases. Subsequently, we expand this concept to encompass host microbiome crosstalk and present related microbiome therapeutics' current status and direction. Ultimately, the review presents a fresh perspective on understanding microbiome therapeutics in infectious diseases based on a cooperative defense system.

Keywords: human microbiome; infectious disease; resistance; tolerance; cooperative defense system

Biology and Life Sciences, Immunology and Microbiology

* All users must log in before leaving a comment