A symbiotic glance at the complexities of signature microbiomic interventions: Infusing balance

Abstract

The Common Fund's National Institutes of Health Human Microbiome Project launched in 2007 is the first major genomics-based effort to reveal the influence of human microbiota, or resident microorganisms, on the health and disease status of humans. The first phase of the Human Microbiome Project (FY2007-2012) focused on characterisation of the composition and diversity and evaluation of the metabolic potential of microbiota that inhabit five major mucosal surfaces of humans: the oral cavity, gastrointestinal tract, nasal passage, skin and urogenital tract. The second and current phase of the Human Microbiome Project (FY2013-2015) is dedicated to data integration of the microbe-host biological properties extracted from cohort studies of microbiome-associated diseases.2 The Human Microbiome Project has provided a few major breakthroughs in understanding the complexity and diversity of human microbiota and their role in human health and disease. At present it is estimated that humans encompass approximately 20 million genes that encode the entire microbiota. In addition, the microbiota in humans contributes immensely toward the micro-xenobiotic and non-xenobiotic interventions inherent to microbiome-associated diseases. However, there are several issues that require thorough consideration before the scientific community can decide on the therapeutic potential of targeting microbiota. This commentary provides a detailed incursion into the complicated inter-microbiome associations and interventions that are related to the five most researched microbiota in humans: (1) the role of the butyrate-producing microbiome in colorectal cancer therapeutics, (2) the protective/defensive microbiome related to inflammatory bowel disease, (3) the risk associated with probiotic delivery in obesity, (4) the antimicrobial-based microbiome disproportion leading to/arising from skin diseases and (5) the maintenance of microbiome loads and confinement to the vaginal mucosa.