Antibiotic-associated Gut Dysbiosis

The human gut microbiota plays a crucial role in maintaining overall health. However, the widespread use of antibiotics has raised concerns about its impact on the microbial ecosystem. This review explores the multifaceted relationship between antibiotics and gut dysbiosis, highlighting the mechanisms underlying these interactions and their implications for human health. Antibiotics, while invaluable in treating infections, disrupt the gut microbiota by indiscriminately targeting both harmful and beneficial microorganisms. This disturbance leads to a reduction in microbial diversity, altered metabolite production, and compromised immune responses, resulting in a state referred to as dysbiosis. Broad-spectrum antibiotics tend to induce more severe dysbiosis compared to narrow-spectrum agents. Antibiotic-induced dysbiosis has been linked to the onset and progression of these disorders, emphasizing the far-reaching consequences of microbial imbalance. The review highlights various strategies to mitigate the adverse effects of antibiotics on gut health, like probiotics, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT), and phage therapy, as promising approaches to restore and maintain a balanced gut microbiota. How to cite this article: Ramakrishna BS, Patankar R. Antibiotic-associated Gut Dysbiosis. J Assoc Physicians India 2023;71(11):62-68.