Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 7, 2021; 27(41): 7041-7064
Published online Nov 7, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i41.7041
Over-feeding the gut microbiome: A scoping review on health implications and therapeutic perspectives
Monica Barone, Federica D'Amico, Marco Fabbrini, Simone Rampelli, Patrizia Brigidi, Silvia Turroni
Monica Barone, Federica D'Amico, Marco Fabbrini, Patrizia Brigidi, Microbiomics Unit, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna 40138, Italy
Monica Barone, Federica D'Amico, Marco Fabbrini, Simone Rampelli, Silvia Turroni, Unit of Microbiome Science and Biotechnology, Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology, University of Bologna, Bologna 40126, Italy
Author contributions: Barone M, D’Amico F, and Fabbrini M performed the literature search; Barone M, D’Amico F, Fabbrini M, Rampelli S and Turroni S drafted the manuscript; Barone M, Brigidi P, and Turroni S edited and corrected the manuscript; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Silvia Turroni, PhD, Associate Professor, Unit of Microbiome Science and Biotechnology, Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology, University of Bologna, Via Belmeloro 6, Bologna 40126, Italy. silvia.turroni@unibo.it
Received: April 29, 2021
Peer-review started: April 29, 2021
First decision: June 17, 2021
Revised: July 2, 2021
Accepted: October 14, 2021
Article in press: October 14, 2021
Published online: November 7, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: The gut microbiome (GM) has gained increasing attention in recent years due to its key role in contributing to host health, potentially serving as a target for personalized precision medicine. This review summarizes the current evidence for the involvement of the GM in the regulation of various pathophysiological aspects, particularly in obesity and related comorbidities. The influence of diet and the molecules produced by commensal microorganisms is discussed, together with traditional and innovative microbiome-based strategies in the prevention and treatment of obesity, up to the development of machine and deep learning bioinformatics tools for the prediction of health risks and therapeutic outcomes.