Main description:

Associations between the composition of the intestinal microbiome and many human diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease, cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders, and cancer, have been elegantly described in the past decade. Now, whole-genome sequencing, bioinformatics, and precision gene-editing techniques are being combined with centuries-old therapies, such as fecal microbiota transplantation, to translate current research into new diagnostics and therapeutics to treat complex diseases. Bugs as Drugs provides a much-needed overview of microbes in therapies and will serve as an excellent resource for scientists and clinicians as they carry out research and clinical studies on investigating the roles the microbiota plays in health and disease.

In Bugs as Drugs, editors Robert A. Britton and Patrice D. Cani have assembled a fascinating collection of reviews that chart the history, current efforts, and future prospects of using microorganisms to fight disease and improve health. Sections cover traditional uses of probiotics, next-generation microbial therapeutics, controlling infectious diseases, and indirect strategies for manipulating the host microbiome.

Contents:

A. Traditional Probiotic Approaches

1. Biochemical Features of Beneficial Microbes: Foundations for Therapeutic Microbiology

Melinda A. Engevik and James Versalovic

2. The Genomic Basis of Lactobacilli as Health-Promoting Organisms

Elisa Salvetti and Paul W. O'Toole

3. Bifidobacteria and their Health-Promoting Effects

Claudio Hidalgo-Cantabrana et al.

B. Next-Generation Bacteriotherapy: Opportunities in Chronic Diseases

4. Microbial Interactions and Interventions in Colorectal Cancer

Terence Van Raay and Emma Allen-Vercoe

5. Microbial Impact on Host Metabolism: Opportunities for Novel Treatments of Nutritional Disorders?

Hubert Plovier and Patrice D. Cani

6. Therapeutic Opportunities in the Vaginal Microbiome

Gregor Reid

7. Lung Microbiota and Its Impact on the Mucosal Immune Phenotype

Benjamin G. Wu and Leopoldo N. Segal

8. Microbiota, Liver Diseases, and Alcohol

Anne-Marie Cassard, Philippe Gerard, and Gabriel Perlemuter

9. The Potential of Probiotics as a Therapy for Osteoporosis

Fraser L. Collins et al.

10. Ecological Therapeutic Opportunities for Oral Diseases

Anilei Hoare, Philip D. Marsh, and Patricia I. Diaz

C. Control of Infectious Disease by Microbes

11. Control of Clostridium difficile Infection by Defined Microbial Communities

James Collins and Jennifer M. Auchtung

12. Fecal Microbiota Transplantation: Therapeutic Potential for a Multitude of Diseases beyond Clostridium difficile

Guido J. Bakker and Max Nieuwdorp

13. Enterococci and their Interactions with the Intestinal Microbiome

Krista Dubin and Eric G. Pamer

D. Next-Generation Microbial Therapeutics: Tools and Regulation

14. Engineering Diagnostic and Therapeutic Gut Bacteria

Brian P. Landry and Jeffrey J. Tabor

15. Use of Traditional and Genetically Modified Probiotics in Human Health: What Does the Future Hold?

Luis G. Bermudez-Humaran and Philippe Langella

16. Genetic Tools for the Enhancement of Probiotic Properties

Laura Ortiz-Velez and Robert Britton

17. Genome Editing of Food-Grade Lactobacilli to Develop Therapeutic Probiotics

Jan-Peter van Pijkeren and Rodolphe Barrangou

18. United States Regulatory Considerations for Development of Live Biotherapeutic Products as Drugs

Sheila M. Dreher-Resnick, Scott Stibitz, and Paul E. Carlson, Jr.

E. Indirect Strategies to Target Microbiome Function for Health

19. Bacteriophage Clinical Use as Antibacterial "Drugs": Utility and Precedent

Stephen T. Abedon

20. Modulation of the Gastrointestinal Microbiome with Nondigestible Fermentable Carbohydrates to Improve Human Health

Edward C. Deehan et al.