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GUT MICROBIOTA

‘Bugs on drugs’: implications for gut health

Intense research is ongoing to dissect the reciprocal interactions between microbiota and drugs. New work finds that a drug to dampen host inflammation can also have off-target effects on the microbiota at transcriptional, metabolic and compositional levels, with resultant expanded benefits to the host.

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Fig. 1: Overview of drug–microbiota interactions.

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Acknowledgements

A.P.B. is supported by a Career Development Award from the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, and the University Cancer Research Fund. R.B.S. is supported by NIH grants P01 DK094779, P30 DK034987.

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Correspondence to Aadra P. Bhatt.

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A.P.B. is an inventor on United States of America Patent 16/482,998. R.B.S. receives grant support for microbial preclinical studies from Gusto Global, Vedanta, SERES Health, BiomX, Biomica and Artizan, and translational grant support from Takeda. R.B.S. is a consultant or on the Advisory Boards of Dannon/Yakult, Second Genome, SERES Health, Vedanta, Otsuka, Gusto Global, BiomX, Biomica, Takeda, Qu Biologics and Artizan.

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Bhatt, A.P., Sartor, R.B. ‘Bugs on drugs’: implications for gut health. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 18, 287–288 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41575-021-00437-1

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