The complex metabolic relationships between the host and its microbiota change throughout
life and vary extensively between individuals, affecting disease risk factors and therapeutic
responses through drug metabolism. Elucidating the biochemical mechanisms underlying
this human supraorganism symbiosis is yielding new therapeutic insights to improve human
health, treat disease, and potentially modify human disease risk factors. Therapeutic options
include targeting drugs to microbial genes or co-regulated host pathways and modifying the�…

The composition and activity of the gut microbiota codevelop with the host from birth and is
subject to a complex interplay that depends on the host genome, nutrition, and life-style. The
gut microbiota is involved in the regulation of multiple host metabolic pathways, giving rise to
interactive host-microbiota metabolic, signaling, and immune-inflammatory axes that
physiologically connect the gut, liver, muscle, and brain. A deeper understanding of these
axes is a prerequisite for optimizing therapeutic strategies to manipulate the gut microbiota�…