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World J Diabetes. Oct 15, 2023; 14(10): 1502-1513
Published online Oct 15, 2023. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v14.i10.1502
Gut microbiome supplementation as therapy for metabolic syndrome
Mc Anto Antony, Aniqa Chowdhury, Dinesh Edem, Rishi Raj, Priyanshu Nain, Mansi Joglekar, Vipin Verma, Ravi Kant
Mc Anto Antony, Aniqa Chowdhury, Mansi Joglekar, Ravi Kant, Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Medical University of South Carolina/AnMed Campus, Anderson, SC 29621, United States
Dinesh Edem, Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AK 72205, United States
Rishi Raj, Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Pikeville Medical Center, Pikeville, KY 41501, United States
Priyanshu Nain, Department of Graduate Medical Education, Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi 110002, India
Vipin Verma, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina/AnMed Campus, Anderson, SC 29621, United States
Author contributions: Antony MA and Kant R designed the outline, performed the writing, prepared the figure, and edited the paper; Edem D, Raj R, Verma V, Nain P, Chowdhury A, and Joglekar M performed the writing, and prepared the table and figure; Antony MA and Kant R provided the input in writing the paper, performed the writing and edited the paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have nothing to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Mc Anto Antony, MD, Staff Physician, Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Medical University of South Carolina/AnMed Campus, 2000 E Greenville St Suite 3100, Anderson, SC 29621, United States. drmcanto@gmail.com
Received: June 9, 2023
Peer-review started: June 9, 2023
First decision: July 18, 2023
Revised: July 31, 2023
Accepted: August 28, 2023
Article in press: August 28, 2023
Published online: October 15, 2023
Abstract

The gut microbiome is defined as an ecological community of commensal symbiotic and pathogenic microorganisms that exist in our body. Gut microbiome dysbiosis is a condition of dysregulated and disrupted intestinal bacterial homeostasis, and recent evidence has shown that dysbiosis is related to chronic inflammation, insulin resistance, cardiovascular diseases (CVD), type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and obesity. It is well known that obesity, T2DM and CVD are caused or worsened by multiple factors like genetic predisposition, environmental factors, unhealthy high calorie diets, and sedentary lifestyle. However, recent evidence from human and mouse models suggest that the gut microbiome is also an active player in the modulation of metabolic syndrome, a set of risk factors including obesity, hyperglycemia, and dyslipidemia that increase the risk for CVD, T2DM, and other diseases. Current research aims to identify treatments to increase the number of beneficial microbiota in the gut microbiome in order to modulate metabolic syndrome by reducing chronic inflammation and insulin resistance. There is increasing interest in supplements, classified as prebiotics, probiotics, synbiotics, or postbiotics, and their effect on the gut microbiome and metabolic syndrome. In this review article, we have summarized current research on these supplements that are available to improve the abundance of beneficial gut microbiota and to reduce the harmful ones in patients with metabolic syndrome.

Keywords: Gut dysbiosis, Metabolic syndrome, Diabetes mellitus, Prebiotics, Probiotics, Postbiotics

Core Tip: Gut microbiome dysbiosis is related to chronic inflammation, insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and obesity. It is well known that obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus and CVD are caused or worsened by multiple factors like genetic predisposition, environmental factors, unhealthy high calorie diets, and sedentary lifestyle. However, recent evidence from human and mouse models suggest that the gut microbiome is also an active player in modulation of these metabolic diseases. Hence it is important to review the role of microbiome supplementation that has been shown to improve the gut microbiome in patients with metabolic syndrome.