About this Research Topic

Background

We have been enjoying the benefits of inoculating live microbes in our gut in the form of various fermented foods and beverages since ancient times. Inoculation of beneficial microbes from the feces of a healthy donor to a sick person — essentially an olden form of fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) — was in medical practice in few countries (e.g. China) for centuries. However, it is only after the development of the concept of microbiome in less than 20 years ago, modern science appreciated the use of beneficial microbes in the form of probiotics or FMT. Health benefits in the context of many clinical conditions have been reported with probiotics (e.g. Helicobacter pylori infection), prebiotics (e.g. traveler’s diarrhea) and FMT (e. g. Clostridium difficile infection). Although the risks associated with FMT is recognized by the scientists, practitioners and society, probiotics are classified as ‘generally recognized as safe’ (GRAS) by FDA, and as a result they are widely consumed worldwide with or without prescriptions. Presently, the probiotic industry is one of the fastest growing of all businesses that deal with productions. Unfortunately, however, the ‘pros and cons’ of most probiotics are not well described in literature and the obtained results are often inconclusive. Moreover, how the probiotics, prebiotics and transplanted beneficial fecal microbes help to maintain or restore human health are poorly understood which is also partly due to the fact that only a few studies actually focused on the mechanistic aspects of human microbiome.

The goal of this Research Topic is to address several outstanding issues, which include, but are not limited to:
1) mechanisms employed by probiotics, prebiotics and FMT to provide health benefits
2) the 'risks' that are associated with the inoculation of 'known beneficial microbes' to the gut
3) methodologies describing the quantification of the inoculated beneficial microbes colonized in human gut
4) methods of improving the shelf life of the beneficial microbes in various forms
5) interactions between beneficial and pathogenic microbes
6) engineering gut microbiome using live microbes
7) present challenges for the probiotic industry
We welcome original research articles, brief reports, perspective or opinions, reviews, mini reviews, systematic reviews and meta-analyses on probiotics, prebiotics, FMT and human microbiome.

Keywords: Probiotics, Prebiotics, Fecal microbiota transplant, Mechanisms, Benefits, Risks, Present and Future Challenges

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