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Shifting the balance: antibiotic effects on host–microbiota mutualism

2011; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 9; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/nrmicro2536

1740-1534

Benjamin P. Willing, Shannon Russell, B. Brett Finlay,

Dermatology and Skin Diseases

The use of antibiotics is making lasting alterations to the long-term relationship between a host and its microbiota. Willing, Russell and Finlay describe how these changes can result in the disruption of immune homeostasis and in increased susceptibility to disease. Antibiotics have been used effectively as a means to treat bacterial infections in humans and animals for over half a century. However, through their use, lasting alterations are being made to a mutualistic relationship that has taken millennia to evolve: the relationship between the host and its microbiota. Host–microbiota interactions are dynamic; therefore, changes in the microbiota as a consequence of antibiotic treatment can result in the dysregulation of host immune homeostasis and an increased susceptibility to disease. A better understanding of both the changes in the microbiota as a result of antibiotic treatment and the consequential changes in host immune homeostasis is imperative, so that these effects can be mitigated.