Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Feb 28, 2020; 26(8): 777-788
Published online Feb 28, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i8.777
Therapies to modulate gut microbiota: Past, present and future
Akshita Gupta, Srishti Saha, Sahil Khanna
Akshita Gupta, Department of Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 110029, India
Srishti Saha, Sahil Khanna, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, United States
Author contributions: Gupta A, Saha S and Khanna S contributed to the writing of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Khanna S has served as a consultant for Rebiotix, Inc., Assembly Biosciences, Inc., and Summit Pharmaceuticals International. Khanna S reports personal fees from Facile, ProBioTech, Premier Inc. and Shire Plc.
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: Sahil Khanna, MBBS, MS, Associate Professor, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mayo Clinic, 200 First St SW, Rochester, MN 55905, United States. khanna.sahil@mayo.edu
Received: September 20, 2019
Peer-review started: September 20, 2019
First decision: November 4, 2019
Revised: February 3, 2020
Accepted: February 15, 2020
Article in press: February 15, 2020
Published online: February 28, 2020
Processing time: 160 Days and 10.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: The human gut microbiota comprises of a diverse array of microorganisms responsible for the maintenance of health. Disruption of this microbial milieu has been implicated in various disorders. These include, but are not limited to, diseases such as Clostridioides difficile infection and inflammatory bowel disease. Microbial replacement therapy or fecal microbiota transplantation is highly effective for treating recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection. Its role in other gastrointestinal and non-gastrointestinal disorders is under investigation. This review summarizes the current indications and evidence for the use of such therapies, and briefly touches upon potential therapeutic applications in the future.