The interplay of gut-microbiome between infection and inflammation

Book excerpt: Gut microbiome has become the greatest attraction of the research community in the recent past due to their diverse compositions and involvement in the regulation of human health and disease. With the development of high-throughput genomic analysis and other scientific advances, the gut microbiome has emerged as a potential therapeutic target for both infectious and autoimmune diseases. Especially, respiratory infections such as tuberculosis and COVID-19 have been shown to have a major impact on disease pathogenesis caused by gut dysbiosis which further affects the regulation of the gut-lung axis and contributes to disease progression. On the other hand, gut dysbiosis has been reported as a key player in multiple chronic diseases including gastrointestinal metabolic, neurological, cardiovascular, and respiratory inflammatory disease that includes diabetes, obesity, intestinal bowel disease, and cancer, etc. Despite, the known involvement, the mechanistic role of gut microbiota in disease pathogenesis is still undermined. The current research topic is focused on the mechanistic interplay of gut microbiota between infection and inflammation and thus overall disease progression. Strategies to overcome gut dysbiosis, gut microbiome transfer, the influence of antibiotics on the gut microbiome, modulation of gut microbiome via drug-repurposing, and host-directed therapies targeting the gut microbiome will also be discussed.