Postbiotics in rheumatoid arthritis: emerging mechanisms and intervention perspectives

Zhen-Hua Ying; Cheng-Liang Mao; Wei Xie; Chen-Huan Yu

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1290015

Postbiotics in rheumatoid arthritis: emerging mechanisms and intervention perspectives

Front Microbiol. 2023 Nov 7:14:1290015. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1290015. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Zhen-Hua Ying¹, Cheng-Liang Mao^{1

2}, Wei Xie^{3

4}, Chen-Huan Yu^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Arthritis Diagnosis and Research, Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital, Hangzhou Medical College, Hangzhou, China.
² Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Experimental Animal and Safety Evaluation, Hangzhou Medical College, Hangzhou, China.
⁴ Institute of Cancer and Basic Medicine, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou, China.
⁵ Cancer Hospital of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Zhejiang Cancer Hospital), Hangzhou, China.

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a prevalent chronic autoimmune disease that affects individuals of all age groups. Recently, the association between RA and the gut microbiome has led to the investigation of postbiotics as potential therapeutic strategies. Postbiotics refer to inactivated microbial cells, cellular components, or their metabolites that are specifically intended for the microbiota. Postbiotics not only profoundly influence the occurrence and development of RA, but they also mediate various inflammatory pathways, immune processes, and bone metabolism. Although they offer a variety of mechanisms and may even be superior to more conventional "biotics" such as probiotics and prebiotics, research on their efficacy and clinical significance in RA with disruptions to the intestinal microbiota remains limited. In this review, we provide an overview of the concept of postbiotics and summarize the current knowledge regarding postbiotics and their potential use in RA therapy. Postbiotics show potential as a viable adjunctive therapy option for RA.

Keywords: Th17 cells; Treg cells; intestinal microbiota; metabolites; short chain fatty acids.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by Zhejiang Provincial Science and Technology Project (No.2015C33164), Zhejiang Provincial Medicine and Technology Project (No. 2020KY527), and Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine for Arthritis Diagnosis and Research (No.202206).