Recently, Dr. Songtao Fan published a review paper “Recent advances in targeted manipulation of the gut microbiome by prebiotics: from taxonomic composition to metabolic function” on Current Opinion in Food Science (Q2, IF: 9.8). In light of the recently renewed interest in harnessing fibers and polyphenols for the targeted manipulation of gut microbial community structure and metabolic output, Dr. Fan propose the term ‘targeted prebiotics’ to denote microbiota-directed fiber with a discrete structure, and discuss recent advances in targeted manipulation of health-promoting microbes by current and candidate prebiotics. Specifically, targeted prebiotics that align with the enzymatic capabilities of health-promoting microbes provide the basis for targeted manipulation of the gut microbiome, which substantially accelerates the development of microbiome-based personalized nutrition from the bench to the clinic. The application of targeted prebiotics in personalized nutrition seeks for predictable shifts in bacterial composition, functional genes, and metabolites. In conclusion, this review will advance the precise modulation of the gut microbiome via the optimization of prebiotic-based strategies.

Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cofs.2022.100959

Figure 1. A brief overview of the concept of prebiotics referring to the manipulation of the gut microbiome, together with the development from microbiome-based to microbiome-targeted therapeutic approaches.

The Food Hydrocolloids Symposium in China was held in Nanchang, Jiangxi November 13th-16th 2022, and organized by School of Food science and the State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University. Dr. Songtao Fan was invited to give a presentation named ‘Inter-individual Variability in Human Gut Microbiome and Targeted Prebiotics’. He firstly introduced the difference between microbiome-based and microbiome-targeted therapeutic approaches, and then explained why he proposed the concept ‘targeted prebiotics’ to challenge the inter-individual variability in human Gut Microbiome. Indeed, a one-fits-all high-fiber diet is unlikely to be feasible for optimizing gut microbiomes, due to large intra- and inter-individual variability. He highlights the manipulation of gut microbiome by targeted prebiotics is consistent and predictable. At last, he discussed recent advances in predictable changes in bacterial composition, genome, and metabolites resulting from the intake of targeted prebiotics.