With the recent advances in understanding the role of the gut microbiome
and human health, it has become evident that pharmabiotics have huge potential in the
therapeutics as well as supplement industries for conditions leading to impaired
microbiota. Pharmabiotics can be referred to as a class of microbial therapeutic
probiotics which could be live bacterial cells of human origin or their products with
clinically proven pharmacological activities found to be beneficial in human disease
conditions. So, the mechanism by which bacteria produce synergistic beneficial effects
on health could help us to develop a scheme to understand the delicate relationship
between the gut microbiome and human health. In this chapter, we will emphasize the
role of gut microbiota, the pharmabiotics they produce and how it affects different
physiological and metabolic and host-microbe interactions leading to the production of
bioactive chemicals with health benefits, eventually leading to the establishment of a
healthy immune system. The chapter will also discuss the repercussions of disturbed
gut microbiota on overall human health, including host psychiatric health. The fact that
pharmabiotics acting as antimicrobial agents will produce no resistant variety is also an
added bonus that increases the scope for discovery of such novel therapeutic agents.
Keywords: Antimicrobial, Bifidobacterium, Faecal matter transplant, Firmicutes, Gastrointestinal tract, Genetically modified probiotics, Gut-brain axis, Gut microbiome, Host-microbe interaction, Infection control, Lactobacillus, Lifestyle disorders, Microbiota, Obesity, Pharmabiotics, Probiotics, Probiotics for cancer, Prophylactic, Short-chain fatty acids, Therapeutic potential.
