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The microbiome is known to affect antitumor immune responses, but how this occurs is unclear. Rhamnose-rich polysaccharides (RHP) from a commensal strain of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum have now been shown to induce iron sequestration by tumor macrophages, thereby limiting tumor growth and promoting antitumor immunity.

Eran Elinav is an immunologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. He has earned many distinctions, including being named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation research scholar in 2017.

The identification of an intestinal microbiome signature that persists after successful dieting in obese mice and contributes to faster weight regain upon re-exposure to an obesity-promoting diet, and that transmits the altered weight regain phenotype to non-dieting mice.

Non-caloric artificial sweeteners (NAS), widely used food additives considered to be safe and beneficial alternatives to sugars, are shown here to lead to the development of glucose intolerance through compositional and functional changes in the gut microbiota of mice, and the deleterious metabolic effects are transferred to germ-free mice by faecal transplant; NAS-induced dysbiosis and glucose intolerance are also demonstrated in healthy human subjects.

A group of microbiome researchers discuss some of the challenges in developing a new generation of microbiome therapies.

In this Viewpoint article, we asked four scientists working on the cancer microbiome to provide their opinions on the current state of the field, where the research is heading and the challenges of implementing this field for clinical utility.

Although cancer genomics is a powerful tool to understand cancer and develop diagnostic tools, the contribution of the microbiome in cancer diagnosis and clinical assessment is much less studied. Elinav, Greten and colleagues provide their respective views on how studying cancer metagenomes could facilitate identification, diagnosis and staging of different tumor types.

Hyperglycaemia leads to impaired costimulatory molecule expression, antigen transport and T cell priming in distinct lung dendritic cell subsets, driving a defective antiviral adaptive immune response, delayed viral clearance and enhanced mortality.

Direct gut sampling shows that probiotics reduce the number of antibiotic resistance genes in the gut of colonization-permissive and antibiotic-naïve individuals. However, when given after antibiotic treatment, probiotics can expand the gut resistome via a bloom of indigenous strains carrying vancomycin resistance genes, rather than antibiotic resistance genes carried by the probiotics themselves.

A study of mice exposed to cigarette smoke suggests that smoking-cessation-induced weight gain is associated with a dysbiotic state that is driven by smoking-related metabolites.

Single-cell analyses reveal cDC1 as conserved immunological drivers of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in mice and humans

A study of the functional microbiome in a mouse model of ALS shows that several gut bacteria may modulate the severity of the disease.

Statistical analyses of a metagenomics-sequenced human cohort identify a relatively minor role for genetics in determining microbiome composition and show that several human phenotypes are as strongly associated with the gut microbiome as with host genetics.

Understanding how diet affects gut microbes and thereby influences human health might lead to targeted dietary strategies. A clinical trial now provides some steps on the path towards this goal.

An increasing number of multifactorial diseases have been linked to intestinal dysbiosis — that is, changes in the composition and function of the gut microbiome. Here, the authors explore the causes and consequences of dysbiosis, and discuss implications for the aetiology and treatment of many common immune-mediated diseases.

The role of inflammation in tumorigenesis and tumour progression is increasingly coming into focus, and this Review discusses the current ideas about the mechanisms of inflammation-associated tumorigenesis and the association with the microbiota.

The NLRP3 inflammasome is involved in the molecular etiology of multiple autoinflammatory diseases. Two studies identify inhibitors of NLRP3 activation and might pave the way for new treatment options for a variety of diseases.

A single-cell map of transcriptomic changes during acute liver failure unveils new insights into pathogenesis and potential therapeutic targets.

In this Perspective, Suez and Elinav describe the potential for therapeutic approaches based on the use of metabolites secreted, modulated or degraded by the gut microbiome, and issues that will be critical for their implementation.

In this study, Ratiner et al. examine the advantages, challenges and future perspectives of utilizing microbiome data in personalized medicine for optimal patient care.

The authors show that Nlrp10 can form a functional inflammasome in vitro and ex vivo, and that this inflammasome is protective in dextran sodium sulfate-induced colitis in mice.

Nearly a decade ago, the concept of inflammasomes was introduced. Since then, the biochemical characterization of the inflammasomes has led to a richer understanding of innate immune responses in the context of infection and sterile inflammation. This has provided the rationale for successful clinical therapies for a spectrum of hereditary periodic fever syndromes and potentially for some metabolic pathologies.

This first-in-human study assessed the feasibility of vaginal microbiome transplantation from healthy donors as a therapeutic alternative for patients suffering from symptomatic, intractable and recurrent bacterial vaginosis.

A precision approach to probiotics could address the heterogeneity inherent to probiotic strains, the hosts and their microbiomes. Here, we discuss the steps required to develop precision probiotics: mechanistic studies, phenotypic and target-based discovery strategies, and person-centric trials.

In this Review, Kolodziejczyk, Zheng and Elinav describe the latest advances in understanding diet–microbiota interactions, the individuality of gut microbiota composition and how this knowledge could be harnessed for personalized nutrition strategies to improve human health.

Here, the authors describe how metabolic disorders, such as type 2 diabetes and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, are driven by alterations in the composition of the intestinal microbiota and its metabolites, which translocate from the gut across a disrupted intestinal barrier and contribute to metabolic inflammation.

The use and promotion of probiotics is widespread, but debatable in many cases. Prospective large-scale randomized studies that assess their effectiveness in promoting health and curing disease and take into account personalized responses of discrete human subpopulations will help clarify specific indications in which probiotics may be safe and beneficial.

Current nutritional approaches to prevent and treat various diseases have limited effectiveness. Here, Zmora et al. review the major principles underlying effects of dietary constituents on the gut microbiota, resolving aspects of the diet–microbiota–host crosstalk, and present the promises and challenges of incorporating microbiome data into dietary planning.