Obesity is a complex, multifactorial disease that is increasing in prevalence despite extensive research and efforts to curb it. Over the last decade, gut microbiome has emerged as an important contributor to the pathogenesis of obesity. Microbiome profile is altered in obese phenotype and the causative role of microbiome in obesity is demonstrated in fecal microbiota transplantation studies.
Herein, current evidences supporting the role of gut microbiome in obesity and the current therapies designed to engineer gut microbiome for treatment of obesity are reviewed.
We outlined the microbial enterotypes associated with obesity and examined the gut microbiota-driven metabolism and low-grade inflammation linking gut microbiome and obesity. We evaluated how the different intrinsic and extrinsic factors such as host genetics, mode of childbirth delivery, diet, lifestyle habits and use of antibiotics influenced the composition of the gut microbiome in the development of obesity. We also discussed the efficacy of current therapies in the forms of prebiotics, probiotics and engineered microbes that are used to manipulate gut microbiome in treating obesity.
The recent evidences discussed in this review showed that obesity is correlated with distinct gut microbiome profiles, which may partly explain the association between obesity and environmental factors. Moreover, therapies that target the gut microbiome can potentially treat obesity. Further studies are needed to design specific microbiome-based therapies that can alter the gut microbiota composition to resemble that of non-obese phenotype and the effectiveness of these therapies in maintaining a healthy gut microbiome can be validated in longitudinal prospective studies. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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