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©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Microbiota revolution: How gut microbes regulate our lives
Marica Colella, Ioannis Alexandros Charitos, Andrea Ballini, Concetta Cafiero, Skender Topi, Raffaele Palmirotta, Luigi Santacroce
Marica Colella, Raffaele Palmirotta, Luigi Santacroce, Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, Section of Microbiology and Virology, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Bari 70124, Italy
Ioannis Alexandros Charitos, Maugeri Clinical Scientific Research Institutes (IRCCS) of Pavia - Division of Pneumology and Respiratory Rehabilitation, Scientific Institute of Bari, Bari 70124, Italy
Andrea Ballini, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Foggia, Foggia 71122, Italy
Andrea Ballini, Department of Precision Medicine, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Naples 80138, Italy
Concetta Cafiero, Area of Molecular Pathology, Anatomic Pathology Unit, Fabrizio Spaziani Hospital, Frosinone 03100, Italy
Skender Topi, Department of Clinical Disciplines, School of Technical Medical Sciences, University of Elbasan “A. Xhuvani”, Elbasan 3001, Albania
Author contributions: Colella M contributed to the conceptualization and data collection; Charitos IA involved in the original manuscript writing and drafting, and resources; Ballini A take part in the manuscript revision and formal analysis; Cafiero C and Palmirotta R contributed to the investigation; Palmirotta R and Santacroce L involved in the validation of this manuscript; Santacroce L contributed to the conceptualization, project administration, and funding of this manuscript; and all the authors have read, discussed, and approved the original manuscript and the final version of it.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
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: Luigi Santacroce, MD, Professor, Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, Section of Microbiology and Virology, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Pzza Giulio Cesare, 11, Bari 70124, Italy. luigi.santacroce@uniba.it
Received: March 28, 2023
Peer-review started: March 28, 2023
First decision: April 26, 2023
Revised: May 16, 2023
Accepted: July 10, 2023
Article in press: July 10, 2023
Published online: July 28, 2023
The human intestine is a natural environment ecosystem of a complex of diversified and dynamic microorganisms, determined through a process of competition and natural selection during life. Those intestinal microorganisms called microbiota and are involved in a variety of mechanisms of the organism, they interact with the host and therefore are in contact with the organs of the various systems. However, they play a crucial role in maintaining host homeostasis, also influencing its behaviour. Thus, microorganisms perform a series of biological functions important for human well-being. The host provides the microorganisms with the environment and nutrients, simultaneously drawing many benefits such as their contribution to metabolic, trophic, immunological, and other functions. For these reasons it has been reported that its quantitative and qualitative composition can play a protective or harmful role on the host health. Therefore, a dysbiosis can lead to an association of unfavourable factors which lead to a dysregulation of the physiological processes of homeostasis. Thus, it has pre-viously noted that the gut microbiota can participate in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases, chronic intestinal inflammation, diabetes mellitus, obesity and atherosclerosis, neurological disorders (e.g., neurological diseases, autism, etc.) colorectal cancer, and more.
Core Tip: The microbial populations that colonize the human body constitute a complex ecosystem; several cells much higher than the total number of cells in the human body. It is generally accepted that the human gut microbiota is a focus of research interest due to its complexity, involvement with health, and involvement in various pathological conditions. The need to extensively elucidate and document hitherto unknown aspects of the gastrointestinal microbiota, its associations with health fuels the need for further study. Furthermore, on the subject in question it has constituted a trigger for carrying out the present review of the research sources received so far.
