The immunomodulatory treasure-trove of the gut microbiota
Emerging evidence demonstrates the pivotal role of gut microbes in shaping our immune system. Studies have shown a handful of immunomodulatory activities of a few individual microbes and several consortia. We systematically characterized the role of over 50 human gut microbes from diverse genera and phyla, representing the gut microbiota diversity. We find most microbes to have immunomodulatory effects spanning from innate to adaptive responses, and with the potential to be effective in a variety of diseases. Surprisingly, these effects were not encoded in microbial phylogenetic background (i.e. microbes from distant phyla could elicit similar effects and vice versa). And thus, this study opens a databank for immunomodulatory effects across phylogenetically diverse human gut microbes, as well as a basis for our follow-up studies on both the mechanisms of these interactions and the molecules at play.
