title: Microbial metabolites in health and disease: Navigating the unknown in search of function.
abstract: The gut microbiota has been implicated in the development of a number of chronic gastrointestinal and systemic diseases. These include inflammatory bowel diseases, irritable bowel syndrome, and metabolic (i.e.obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and diabetes) and neurological diseases. The advanced understanding of host-microbe interactions has largely been due to new technologies such as 16S rRNA sequencing to identify previously unknown microbial communities and, more importantly, their functional characteristics through metagenomic sequencing and other multi-omic technologies, such as metatranscriptomics, metaproteomics, and metabolomics. Given the vast array of newly acquired knowledge in the field and technological advances, it is expected that mechanisms underlying several disease states involving the interactions between microbes, their metabolites, and the host will be discovered. The identification of these mechanisms will allow for the development of more precise therapies to prevent or manage chronic disease. This review discusses the functional characterization of the microbiome, highlighting the advances in identifying bioactive microbial metabolites that have been directly linked to gastrointestinal and peripheral diseases.
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Medicine, Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637.
authors.forename: Kristina B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Martinez
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Medicine, Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637.
authors.forename: Vanessa
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Leone
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Medicine, Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637 echang@medicine.bsd.uchicago.edu.
authors.forename: Eugene B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Chang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology; D000069196:Gastrointestinal Microbiome; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions; D006801:Humans; D015212:Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology; D043183:Irritable Bowel Syndrome / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology; D065626:Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology; D009765:Obesity / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000382:microbiology; D012329:RNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D012329:RNA, Bacterial; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S
keywords: cardiovascular disease; inflammatory bowel disease (IBD); meta-omics; metabolomics; metagenomics; metatranscriptomics; microbial metabolites; multi-omics; neurological disease