Editorial: Microbiome in IBD: From Composition to Therapy

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Ruixin Zhu, Tongji University; Peijian He, Emory University; Zhanju Liu, Tongji University; Ningning Liu, Shanghai Jiao Tong University; Yinglei Miao, Kunming Medical University; Chenggong Yu, Nanjing University; Lixin Zhu, Sun Yat-sen University
• Language: English
• Date: 2021-06-24
• Publisher: FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2021 Zhu, He, Liu, Liu, Miao, Yu and Zhu.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2021.721992
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: FRONTIERS IN PHARMACOLOGY
• Volume: 12
• Start Page: 721992
• End Page: 721992
• Keywords: Pharmacology & Pharmacy; ulcerative colitis; crohn's disease; interaction; Science & Technology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; inflammatory bowel disease; microbiome
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery

Abstract

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic, non-specific, inflammatory intestinal disease with a high relapse rate. It has become a huge burden worldwide (Kaplan and Ng, 2017). IBD is characterized by changes in the gut microbiome. However, the role of the gut microbiome in the pathogenesis of IBD is still unclear. Therefore, this theme issue aims to discuss the changes of gut microbiome in IBD and its relevance for the treatment of IBD. Currently, many studies have found that the composition of the gut microbiome in IBD were significantly altered which is considered to contribute to this immune disorder (Glassner et al., 2020). A probable mechanism is that the metabolites of the microbiota regulate metabolic pathways and inflammatory signal transduction thereby affecting the host immune system. On the other hand, the gut microbiota may affect the gut immunity through adherent bacteria. In this issue, Chen et al. reported that in pediatric IBD, adherent bacteria attached to the terminal ileum were associated with elevated Th17 cells and SIgA responses (Chen et al.). The limitation of this study was the lack of intervention approach. Previous studies of adherent bacteria mainly rely on models of immortal cell lines, which cannot reproduce the tissue-like environment. To address limitations, Mayorgas et al. established a human colonic organoids model which represents a promising tool to study the cross talk between Adherent-invasive Escherichia coli and intestinal epithelial cells (Mayorgas et al., 2021).