REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Mucosal Immunity
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1607388
This article is part of the Research TopicGut microbiome and immune systemView all 5 articles
Gut Microbiota: A Promising New Target in Immune Tolerance
Provisionally accepted
Nourah Almansour1
Khubaib Choudhry2
Fatema Al-rashed1
Hend Alqaderi3
Sardar Sindhu1
Fahd Al Mulla1
Rasheed Ahmad1*- 1Dasman Diabetes Institute, Kuwait City, Kuwait
- 2Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Arts and Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- 3Department of Public Health and Community Service, School of Dental Medicine, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
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Gut microbiota research has highlighted its pivotal role in human health and disease. Its composition is shaped by diet, genetics, age, and environmental factors. When the balance of these microbes is disrupted (dysbiosis), it can contribute to health problems like metabolic, inflammatory, and mental disorders. The microbiota supports digestion, fermentation, and vitamin production, which are essential for overall health. The gut microbiota has emerged as a critical modulator of immune function, with increasing evidence highlighting its role in establishing and maintaining immune tolerance. Despite significant advances in understanding the interactions between the gut microbiome and immune system, gaps remain in the literature regarding the specific mechanisms through which microbiota influences immune tolerance. This review aims to address these knowledge gaps by synthesizing current research on the microbiota impact on immune tolerance, emphasizing key factors such as microbial diversity, metabolic byproducts, and the microbiota interaction with immune cells, specifically focusing on the role of microbial tryptophan metabolites in PD-1/PD-L1 tolerance. We also highlight critical areas for future research, including the identification of microbial species or strains that can modulate immune tolerance, the influence of diet and environmental factors on microbiota composition, and the development of microbiota-based therapies. By bridging these gaps, this review seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of the mechanistic role of microbiota immune tolerance and its potential as a novel therapeutic target for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
Keywords: gut microbiota1, Immune tolerance2, Immune modulation3, Treg4, probiotics5
Received: 07 Apr 2025; Accepted: 01 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Almansour, Choudhry, Al-rashed, Alqaderi, Sindhu, Al Mulla and Ahmad. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Rasheed Ahmad, Dasman Diabetes Institute, Kuwait City, Kuwait
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