How to Apply Microbiome Products for Precision Prevention?

Following the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic and the concurrent advancement of microbiome analytics for precision prevention, the demand for microbiome-based products (MPs) encompassing probiotics (live bacteria), prebiotics (non-digestible food substrates), synbiotics (combinations of prebiotics and probiotics), and postbiotics (microbial metabolites and inactivated cellular components)-has been steadily increasing.These products confer principal benefits on the gastrointestinal tract, immune function, neurocognition, skin health, and anticancer activity through the proposed gut-organ axis mechanisms.To enhance the efficacy and safety of MPs, novel strains, formulations, and combinatorial preparations have been developed.Nevertheless, the evidence supporting their efficacy is often discordant and remains heterogeneous and contested across industry as well as the medical and scientific communities.Such inconsistencies and the paucity of robust evidence may contribute to the misuse of MPs.Given the vast diversity and abundance of the human microbiome, we propose refined omics approaches, such as metagenomics or multi-omics analyses, to reconcile these discrepancies and to optimize MP efficacy within a precision-nutrition framework.With respect to safety, postbiotics appear to be relatively safer than other MP categories owing to their non-viable nature, although this assertion warrants further validation given their relative novelty.