Unveiling and harnessing the human gut microbiome in the rising burden of non-communicable diseases during urbanization

ABSTRACT

The world is witnessing a global increase in the urban population, particularly in developing Asian and African countries. Concomitantly, the global burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is rising, markedly associated with the changing landscape of lifestyle and environment during urbanization. Accumulating studies have revealed the role of the gut microbiome in regulating the immune and metabolic homeostasis of the host, which potentially bridges external factors to the host (patho-)physiology. In this review, we discuss the rising incidences of NCDs during urbanization and their links to the compositional and functional dysbiosis of the gut microbiome. In particular, we elucidate the effects of urbanization-associated factors (hygiene/pollution, urbanized diet, lifestyles, the use of antibiotics, and early life exposure) on the gut microbiome underlying the pathogenesis of NCDs. We also discuss the potential and feasibility of microbiome-inspired and microbiome-targeted approaches as novel avenues to counteract NCDs, including fecal microbiota transplantation, diet modulation, probiotics, postbiotics, synbiotics, celobiotics, and precision antibiotics.

KEYWORDS:

• the gut microbiome
• non-communicable diseases
• urbanization
• fecal microbiota transplantation
• diet

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC grant Nos. 32100134 and 82172323), the Municipal Key Research and Development Program of Guangzhou (202206010014), and a seed fund from the Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University and Sun Yat-sen University. APB is supported by a Career Development Award from the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, and the University Cancer Research Fund. Figures A, C, and D were created via BioRender.com.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Author contribution

TZ conceived the manuscript. ZH and YL jointly wrote the manuscript. HP, MH, KB, NS, HWL, HM, MPE, KC, EB, APB, and SAS provided significant intellectual contributions and edited the manuscript. WW and KL provided significant contribution to the conceptualization and materialization of this manuscript. TZ supervised this study and the drafting of this manuscript.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [32100134]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [82172323].