REVIEW article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Mucosal Immunity
This article is part of the Research TopicHost-Microbiota Interactions in IBD: Immune Modulation and Barrier FunctionView all 4 articles
The Gut Microbiota and its Metabolites: Novel Therapeutic Targets for Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Provisionally accepted
- Affiliated Hospital of Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) pathogenesis is critically influenced by gut microbiota dysbiosis and perturbations in associated metabolites. This review outlines current IBD diagnostic and therapeutic paradigms, highlighting the persistent focus on the management of inflammatory symptoms and the absence of curative interventions. We elucidate the mechanistic links between gut microbiota dysregulation and IBD progression, with an emphasis on the immunomodulatory functions of microbial metabolites—specifically short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), bile acids (BAs), and tryptophan (Trp) metabolism—in maintaining intestinal barrier integrity and attenuating inflammation. Furthermore, we evaluate microbiota-targeted therapeutic strategies, including probiotics, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), and metabolite-based interventions, as novel approaches for IBD management. This synthesis aims to inform future therapeutic development and accelerate the clinical translation of microbiota-modulating regimens.
Keywords: inflammatory bowel disease, Gut Microbiota, short-chain fatty acids, Bile acids, Tryptophan
Received: 28 Aug 2025; Accepted: 10 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shen, Li, Wang and Sun. 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:
Deqiang Wang, deqiang_wang@aliyun.com
Kang Sun, doctorsunkang@126.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.