Effects of Antibiotics upon the Gut Microbiome: A Review of the Literature (original) (raw)
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biomedicines Effects of Antibiotics upon the Gut Microbiome: A Review of the Literature
The human gastrointestinal tract carries a large number of microorganisms associated with complex metabolic processes and interactions. Although antibiotic treatment is crucial for combating infections, its negative effects on the intestinal microbiota and host immunity have been shown to be of the utmost importance. Multiple studies have recognized the adverse consequences of antibiotic use upon the gut microbiome in adults and neonates, causing dysbiosis of the microbiota. Repeated antibiotic treatments in clinical care or low-dosage intake from food could be contributing factors in this issue. Researchers in both human and animal studies have strived to explain this multifaceted relationship. The present review intends to elucidate the axis of the gastrointestinal microbiota and antibiotics resistance and to highlight the main aspects of the issue.
2013
The excessively widespread use of antibiotics has created many threats. A well-known problem is the increasing bacterial resistance to antibiotics, which has clearly become a worldwide challenge to the effective control of infections by many pathogens. But, beyond affecting the pathogenic agents for which it is intended, antibiotic treatment also affects the mutualistic communities of microbes that inhabit the human body. As they inhibit susceptible organisms and select for resistant ones, antibiotics can have strong immediate effects on the composition of these communities, such as the proliferation of resistant opportunists that can cause accute disease. Furthermore, antibiotic-induced microbiota alterations are also likely to have more insidious effects on long-term health. In the case of the gut microbiota, this community interacts with many crucial aspects of human biology, including the regulation of immune and metabolic homeostasis, in the gut and beyond. It follows that anti...
Gut Microbiome and Antibiotics
Archives of medical research, 2017
Despite that the human gastrointestinal tract is the most populated ecological niche by bacteria in the human body, much is still unknown about its characteristics. This site is highly susceptible to the effects of many external factors that may affect in the quality and the quantity of the microbiome. Specific factors such as diet, personal hygiene, pharmacological drugs and the use of antibiotics can produce a significant impact on the gut microbiota. The effect of these factors is more relevant early in life, when the gut microbiota has not yet fully established. In this review, we discussed the effect of type and doses of the antibiotics on the gut microbiota and what the major consequences in the use and abuse of these antimicrobial agents.
Antibiotics and the Human Gut Microbiome: Dysbioses and Accumulation of Resistances
Frontiers in Microbiology, 2016
The human microbiome is overly exposed to antibiotics, due, not only to their medical use, but also to their utilization in farm animals and crops. Microbiome composition can be rapidly altered by exposure to antibiotics, with potential immediate effects on health, for instance through the selection of resistant opportunistic pathogens that can cause acute disease. Microbiome alterations induced by antibiotics can also indirectly affect health in the long-term. The mutualistic microbes in the human body interact with many physiological processes, and participate in the regulation of immune and metabolic homeostasis. Therefore, antibiotic exposure can alter many basic physiological equilibria, promoting long-term disease. In addition, excessive antibiotic use fosters bacterial resistance, and the overly exposed human microbiome has become a significant reservoir of resistance genes, contributing to the increasing difficulty in controlling bacterial infections. Here, the complex relationships between antibiotics and the human microbiome are reviewed, with focus on the intestinal microbiota, addressing (1) the effects of antibiotic use on the composition and function of the gut microbiota, (2) the impact of antibiotic-induced microbiota alterations on immunity, metabolism, and health, and (3) the role of the gut microbiota as a reservoir of antibiotic resistances.
The varying effects of antibiotics on gut microbiota
AMB Express, 2021
Antibiotics are lifesaving therapeutic drugs that have been used by human for decades. They are used both in the fight against bacterial pathogens for both human and for animal feeding. However, of recent, their effects on the gut microbial compositions and diversities have attracted much attention. Existing literature have established the dysbiosis (reduced diversity) in the gut microbiota in association with antibiotic and antibiotic drug doses. In the light of spelling out the varying effects of antibiotic use on gut microbiota, this review aimed at given an account on the degree of gut microbial alteration caused by common antibiotics. While some common antibiotics are found to destroy the common phyla, other debilitating effects were observed. The effects can be attributed to the mode of mechanism, the class of antibiotic, the degree of resistance of the antibiotic used, the dosage used during the treatment, the route of administration, the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics ...
Fire in the Forest: Adverse Effects of Antibiotics on the Healthy Human Gut Microbiome
International Journal of Medical Reviews
Antimicrobial resistance, especially the emergence of multidrug-resistant human pathogens, remains a serious public health crisis across the globe. The human gut microbiome regulates essential human functions including digestion, energy metabolism, brain function, and immunity by modulating multiple endocrine, neural, and immune pathways of the host. Increasing evidence shows adverse effects of antibiotics on the community structure and functions of healthy gut microbiomes. Short-term antibiotic treatment is able to change the richness and diversity of species into a long-term dysbiotic state. The colonization of invading pathogens is encouraged because of decreased competitive exclusion. Furthermore, the accumulation of antimicrobial resistant genes in the gut microbiome (gut resistome) facilitates the emergence of multidrug-resistant nosocomial pathogens. In this study, the adverse effects of antibiotics on the gut microbiome are highlighted in terms of dysbiosis and the accumulation of resistance genes. In light of evidence of such adverse impacts, several epidemiological studies have been conducted on traditional culture techniques and 16S rRNA metagenomics to assess the compositional and functional changes occurring in the gut microbiome after exposure to antibiotics. They have failed to agree on specific antibioticassociated microbiome and its functional redundancy subsequent to exposure to antibiotics. This mini-review describes the composition and role of a healthy microbiome to understand and appraise the value of gut microbiome and summarizes the current understanding of adverse effects of antibiotics on it.
Antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial drug used for treating and preventing any infection caused by pathogenic bacteria. The widely accepted use of antibiotics has saved millions of human lives all over the world; however, they highly influenced the human microbiome. Human microbiome performs an array of important functions that help us to survive and keep away dangerous disease. Mounting evidence shows that antibiotics alter the constituent of this microbiome and influence the function of the immune system, our ability to resist infection, and our capacity for processing food. Therefore, it is now more important than ever to revisit how we use antibiotics. This review focused on some collateral effects and problems associated with antibiotic use on human gut microbiome. Evidence of histological alternation of intestinal epithelia was considered.
Microbiota of the Gut: Antibiotic-Induced Dysbiosis and the Adverse Effects on Human Health
Iris Publishers LLC, 2018
A healthy gut microbial community is essential for homeostasis in mammals. A symbiotic relationship between host and microbe is essential in developing the immune system, providing biomolecules and generating energy through utilisation of indigestible compounds. The diversity of the gut microbiota is altered following antibiotic treatments, the effect this has on the health and wellbeing of the host has long been underestimated and is now the subject of intense debate. Antibiotics facilitate the selection of energy harvesting microbes within the gut and hence heavily influence the gaining of weight and may be contributing more than we anticipated to the modern obesity epidemic. These changes to the bacterial composition of the gut, dysbiosis are caused by elevated oxygen levels within the gut that promotes the propagation of facultative anaerobic Proteobacteria, a condition associated with inflammation and cancer. Additionally, the altered oxygenated intestinal climate allows the growth of aerobic pathogens, conveying clinically relevant resistance genes on highly transmissible mobile elements between communities or acquiring them from commensal bacteria, in turn aiding the spread of antibiotic resistance. Here we discuss the indirect pleotropic effects antibiotics have on the microbial community and environment of the gut leading to hidden adverse implications to human health.
Differential Effects of Antibiotic Therapy on the Structure and Function of Human Gut Microbiota
PLoS ONE, 2013
The human intestinal microbiota performs many essential functions for the host. Antimicrobial agents, such as antibiotics (AB), are also known to disturb microbial community equilibrium, thereby having an impact on human physiology. While an increasing number of studies investigate the effects of AB usage on changes in human gut microbiota biodiversity, its functional effects are still poorly understood. We performed a follow-up study to explore the effect of ABs with different modes of action on human gut microbiota composition and function. Four individuals were treated with different antibiotics and samples were taken before, during and after the AB course for all of them. Changes in the total and in the active (growing) microbiota as well as the functional changes were addressed by 16S rRNA gene and metagenomic 454based pyrosequencing approaches. We have found that the class of antibiotic, particularly its antimicrobial effect and mode of action, played an important role in modulating the gut microbiota composition and function. Furthermore, analysis of the resistome suggested that oscillatory dynamics are not only due to antibiotic-target resistance, but also to fluctuations in the surviving bacterial community. Our results indicated that the effect of AB on the human gut microbiota relates to the interaction of several factors, principally the properties of the antimicrobial agent, and the structure, functions and resistance genes of the microbial community. Citation: Pérez-Cobas AE, Artacho A, Knecht H, Ferrú s ML, Friedrichs A, et al. (2013) Differential Effects of Antibiotic Therapy on the Structure and Function of Human Gut Microbiota. PLoS ONE 8(11): e80201.