Antibiotics As Major Disruptors of Gut Microbiota

Overview

Journal Front Cell Infect Microbiol

Specialties Cell Biology
Infectious Diseases
Microbiology

Date 2020 Dec 17

PMID 33330122

Citations 276

Authors

Jaime Ramirez

Francisco Guarner

Luis Bustos Fernandez

Aldo Maruy

Vera Lucia Sdepanian

Henry Cohen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Advances in culture-independent research techniques have led to an increased understanding of the gut microbiota and the role it plays in health and disease. The intestine is populated by a complex microbial community that is organized around a network of metabolic interdependencies. It is now understood that the gut microbiota is vital for normal development and functioning of the human body, especially for the priming and maturation of the adaptive immune system. Antibiotic use can have several negative effects on the gut microbiota, including reduced species diversity, altered metabolic activity, and the selection of antibiotic-resistant organisms, which in turn can lead to antibiotic-associated diarrhea and recurrent infections. There is also evidence that early childhood exposure to antibiotics can lead to several gastrointestinal, immunologic, and neurocognitive conditions. The increase in the use of antibiotics in recent years suggests that these problems are likely to become more acute or more prevalent in the future. Continued research into the structure and function of the gut microbiota is required to address this challenge.

Citing Articles

Heterocyclic Antidepressants with Antimicrobial and Fungicide Activity.

Zolotareva D, Zazybin A, Belyankova Y, Bayazit S, Dauletbakov A, Seilkhanov T Molecules. 2025; 30(5).

PMID: 40076325 PMC: 11902072. DOI: 10.3390/molecules30051102.

Food substances alter gut resistome: Mechanisms, health impacts, and food components.

Liang Z, Liang Z, Hu H, Howell K, Fang Z, Zhang P Compr Rev Food Sci Food Saf. 2025; 24(2):e70143.

PMID: 40047321 PMC: 11884230. DOI: 10.1111/1541-4337.70143.

Is the oral pathogen, Porphyromona gingivalis, associated to colorectal cancer?: a systematic review.

Navarro-Sanchez A, Nieto-Vitoria M, Lopez-Lopez J, Martinez-Crespo J, Navarro-Mateu F BMC Cancer. 2025; 25(1):395.

PMID: 40038641 PMC: 11881450. DOI: 10.1186/s12885-025-13770-4.

Stools from a human APOEe2 donor reduces amyloid and tau pathology and increases neuroinflammation in a 3xTg AD mouse model.

Marizzoni M, Tournier B, Chevalier C, Saleri S, Lathuiliere A, Ceyzeriat K Front Aging Neurosci. 2025; 17:1539067.

PMID: 40026419 PMC: 11868276. DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2025.1539067.

The Role of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Models in Antimicrobial Stewardship in Public Health: A Narrative Review.

Pennisi F, Pinto A, Ricciardi G, Signorelli C, Gianfredi V Antibiotics (Basel). 2025; 14(2).

PMID: 40001378 PMC: 11851606. DOI: 10.3390/antibiotics14020134.

References

Foliaki S, Pearce N, Bjorksten B, Mallol J, Montefort S, von Mutius E . Antibiotic use in infancy and symptoms of asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis, and eczema in children 6 and 7 years old: International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood Phase III. J Allergy Clin Immunol. 2009; 124(5):982-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2009.08.017. View

Klein E, Van Boeckel T, Martinez E, Pant S, Gandra S, Levin S . Global increase and geographic convergence in antibiotic consumption between 2000 and 2015. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018; 115(15):E3463-E3470. PMC: 5899442. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1717295115. View

Allaband C, McDonald D, Vazquez-Baeza Y, Minich J, Tripathi A, Brenner D . Microbiome 101: Studying, Analyzing, and Interpreting Gut Microbiome Data for Clinicians. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2018; 17(2):218-230. PMC: 6391518. DOI: 10.1016/j.cgh.2018.09.017. View

Sugden R, Kelly R, Davies S . Combatting antimicrobial resistance globally. Nat Microbiol. 2016; 1(10):16187. DOI: 10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.187. View

Guarner F . The gut microbiome: What do we know?. Clin Liver Dis (Hoboken). 2019; 5(4):86-90. PMC: 6490470. DOI: 10.1002/cld.454. View

Wu G, Chen J, Hoffmann C, Bittinger K, Chen Y, Keilbaugh S . Linking long-term dietary patterns with gut microbial enterotypes. Science. 2011; 334(6052):105-8. PMC: 3368382. DOI: 10.1126/science.1208344. View

Clemente J, Pehrsson E, Blaser M, Sandhu K, Gao Z, Wang B . The microbiome of uncontacted Amerindians. Sci Adv. 2015; 1(3). PMC: 4517851. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1500183. View

Li J, Jia H, Cai X, Zhong H, Feng Q, Sunagawa S . An integrated catalog of reference genes in the human gut microbiome. Nat Biotechnol. 2014; 32(8):834-41. DOI: 10.1038/nbt.2942. View

Bartlett J . Clinical practice. Antibiotic-associated diarrhea. N Engl J Med. 2002; 346(5):334-9. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMcp011603. View

10.

Giedraitiene A, Vitkauskiene A, Naginiene R, Pavilonis A . Antibiotic resistance mechanisms of clinically important bacteria. Medicina (Kaunas). 2011; 47(3):137-46. View

11.

Turta O, Rautava S . Antibiotics, obesity and the link to microbes - what are we doing to our children?. BMC Med. 2016; 14:57. PMC: 4836077. DOI: 10.1186/s12916-016-0605-7. View

12.

Edwards A, Karim S, Pascual R, Jowhar L, Anderson S, McBride S . Chemical and Stress Resistances of Spores and Vegetative Cells. Front Microbiol. 2016; 7:1698. PMC: 5080291. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.01698. View

13.

Szajewska H, Kolodziej M . Systematic review with meta-analysis: Saccharomyces boulardii in the prevention of antibiotic-associated diarrhoea. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2015; 42(7):793-801. DOI: 10.1111/apt.13344. View

14.

WOSTMANN B . The germfree animal in nutritional studies. Annu Rev Nutr. 1981; 1:257-79. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.nu.01.070181.001353. View

15.

Biedermann L, Rogler G . The intestinal microbiota: its role in health and disease. Eur J Pediatr. 2015; 174(2):151-67. DOI: 10.1007/s00431-014-2476-2. View

16.

Palleja A, Mikkelsen K, Forslund S, Kashani A, Allin K, Nielsen T . Recovery of gut microbiota of healthy adults following antibiotic exposure. Nat Microbiol. 2018; 3(11):1255-1265. DOI: 10.1038/s41564-018-0257-9. View

17.

Cammarota G, Ianiro G, Tilg H, Rajilic-Stojanovic M, Kump P, Satokari R . European consensus conference on faecal microbiota transplantation in clinical practice. Gut. 2017; 66(4):569-580. PMC: 5529972. DOI: 10.1136/gutjnl-2016-313017. View

18.

Zmora N, Suez J, Elinav E . You are what you eat: diet, health and the gut microbiota. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2018; 16(1):35-56. DOI: 10.1038/s41575-018-0061-2. View

19.

Tanoue T, Atarashi K, Honda K . Development and maintenance of intestinal regulatory T cells. Nat Rev Immunol. 2016; 16(5):295-309. DOI: 10.1038/nri.2016.36. View

20.

Lamichhane S, Sen P, Dickens A, Oresic M, Bertram H . Gut metabolome meets microbiome: A methodological perspective to understand the relationship between host and microbe. Methods. 2018; 149:3-12. DOI: 10.1016/j.ymeth.2018.04.029. View