Chemical transformation of xenobiotics by the human gut microbiota

Impact of the Gut Microbiota on Vaccine Responses

Non-responsiveness or poor responsiveness to vaccines are challenging issues in vaccine development, and efforts have been made to find out the potential reasons for these conditions. Intestinal microbiome plays a key role in regulating and development of immune system and the composition and diversity of microbiota in different individuals on the one hand, and the imbalance of intestinal micro...

Phytoestrogen Metabolism by Adult Human Gut Microbiota.

Phytoestrogens are plant-derived polyphenols with a structure similar to human estrogens. The three main groups of phytoestrogens, isoflavones, ellagitannins, and lignans, are transformed into equol, urolithins, and enterolignans, respectively, by bacteria. These metabolites have more estrogenic/antiestrogenic and antioxidant activities than their precursors, and they are more bioavailable. The...

Gut Microbiota and Neuropsychiatric Disorders

The Active Human Gut Microbiota Differs from the Total Microbiota

The human gut microbiota is considered one of the most fascinating reservoirs of microbial diversity hosting between 400 to 1000 bacterial species distributed among nine phyla with Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria representing around 75% of the diversity. One of the most intriguing issues relates to understanding which microbial groups are active players in the maintenance of the mi...

Microbial transformation of xenobiotics

Introduction The term xenobiotic (Greek xenos + bioticos, which means “strange” and “life-related” respectively) means a chemical substance that is not a natural component of a living organism exposed to it, i.e. a strange, exogenous substance or anthropogenic material. This definition covers substances strange to the target organisms, hence its use for most poisons and drugs. An important grou...