Interplay between gut microbiota and bile acids in diarrhoea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome: a review

Abstract

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common functional gastrointestinal disease that disturbs the physiology and psychology of patients and increases the burden on families, the healthcare system, society, and economic development, affecting more and more people around the world. Despite the multiple factors that account for IBS remaining incompletely studied, emerging evidence demonstrated the abnormal changes in gut microbiota and bile acids (BAs) metabolism closely associated with IBS. Moreover, microbiota drives significant modifications for BAs, consisting of deconjugation, 7α-dehydroxylation, oxidation, epimerization, desulfation, esterification, and so on, while BAs, in turn, affect the microbiota directly or indirectly. In light of the complex connection among gut microbiota, BAs, and IBS, it is urgent to review the latest research progress in this field. In this review, we described the disorders of intestinal microecology and BAs profiles in IBS-D and also highlighted the cross-talk between gut microbiota and BAs in the context of IBS-D. Integrating these, we suggest that new therapeutic strategies targeting the microbiota-BAs axis for IBS-D, even for other related diseases caused by bacteria-bile acid dysbiosis should be expected.

Keywords:

• Diarrhoea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome
• gut microbiota
• bile acid
• interaction
• therapy

Author contributions

Jun-Jie Hou, Xin-Wang, Bang-Mao Wang, and Yu-Ming Wang designed the review. Jun-Jie Hou collected and analyzed the literature. Jun-Jie Hou wrote the paper. Jun-Jie Hou, Bang-Mao Wang, and Yu-Ming Wang modified the manuscript. All authors were involved in the final approval of the article.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

The datasets used and/or analyzed in the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded in full by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 81570489).