Natural Modulation of Gut Host–microbe Symbioses: Integrating Traditional Medicines with Microbiome Science

In recent decades, chronic diseases have risen sharply worldwide, including gastrointestinal disorders, metabolic diseases such as obesity and type 2 diabetes, and extra-intestinal conditions mediated by the gut-brain, gut-lung, and gut-heart axes. Growing evidence shows that disruption of the gut microbial symbiosis is a common driver, disrupting nutrient metabolism, immune regulation, and intestinal barrier function, and thus making the gut microbiome a key therapeutic target. Because traditional approaches such as probiotic supplements often lack efficacy and specificity, attention has shifted to natural products and ethnomedicines, long used in practice but only recently studied in depth. With advances in metagenomics and metabolomics, researchers are beginning to clarify how these remedies reshape host-microbe and microbe-microbe interactions, enhance beneficial metabolites (e.g., short-chain fatty acids), and restore gut–organ axis homeostasis, laying the groundwork for integrating traditional knowledge with modern therapies.This Research Topic focuses on how natural products and ethnomedicines modulate host–microbe symbioses within the gut ecosystem, aiming to clarify the molecular mechanisms by which natural products reshape microbial communities, their metabolic outputs, and their interactions with the host. We are particularly interested in how these interventions restore or reconfigure mutualistic host-microbe and microbe-microbe relationships along gut-brain, gut-lung, and gut-heart axes. It further seeks to validate their therapeutic potential in microbiota-related diseases (such as metabolic disorders, inflammatory bowel disease, and neuropsychiatric conditions) through in vivo models and clinical cohorts, viewing disease states as manifestations of breakdown and re-establishment of symbiotic networks rather than changes in single microbial taxa.This Research Topic will consider submissions focused on how natural products and ethnomedicines modulate gut host-microbe symbioses in the context of chronic and extra-intestinal diseases, restricting the scope to research elucidating molecular mechanisms, translational studies, and comparative ethnomedicinal analysis. To support a wide approach, we encourage articles covering, but not limited to, the following themes:- Mechanisms by which natural products or ethnomedicines modulate gut microbiota structure and function and reconfigure host-microbe and microbe-microbe interactions.- Roles of microbial metabolites (e.g., short-chain fatty acids, bile acids) in mediating health benefits and stabilizing or restoring symbiotic networks along gut–organ axes.- Impact of natural products and ethnomedicines on microbiome-organ interaction in model organisms- Standardized screening methods and frameworks for evaluating microbiota and symbiosis modulators.- Integrative approaches combining traditional knowledge with modern microbiome omics data to generate symbiosis-centered models of health and disease. Topic editors: Bernard Moussian, Wang Yiwen, Jianzheng He, Youxin Li Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/76761/natural-modulation-of-gut-host-microbe-symbioses-integrating-traditional-medicines-with-microbiome-science