1Assistant Professor of Microbiology, Nalbari Medical College, Assam, India. Email: drarun198630@gmail.com
2Assistant Professor of Surgery, Nalbari Medical College, Assam, India
3Professor of Microbiology, Nalbari Medical College, Assam, India
4Senior Resident, Department of Pathology, Prasad Medical College and Hospital, Unnao, Uttar Pradesh, India
5Consultant Critical Care, Shanti Memorial Hospital, Cuttack, Odisha, India
*Corresponding Author: Dr. Arunjyoti Sarmah, Assistant Professor of Microbiology, Nalbari Medical College, Assam, India. Email: drarun198630@gmail.com
The human gut microbiome is essential for sustaining host health by regulating immunological responses, intestinal barrier function, and metabolic activities. Numerous diseases, including as inflammatory bowel disease, metabolic problems, colorectal cancer, and neurological ailments, have been closely linked to dysbiosis, which is defined by changes in microbial diversity and composition. As a result, targeted modification of the gut microbiome has become a viable treatment approach. The development of medicine delivery strategies intended to specifically affect the microbial communities in the gastrointestinal tract has advanced significantly in recent years. Probiotics, Prebiotics, Synbiotics, Faecal microbiota transplantation, and microbiota-responsive medication delivery systems are examples of strategies that have shown a great deal of promise in improving certain gut related ailments outcomes and restoring microbial balance. The stability and targeted release of microbiome-modulating drugs have been improved by sophisticated drug delivery platforms, such as nanoparticle-based carriers, pH-responsive systems, enzyme-triggered formulations, and microencapsulation technologies. By precisely delivering medications to particular intestinal areas, these methods increase treatment efficacy while reducing systemic side effects. Microbiome-based therapies are anticipated to excel due to emerging technologies as bacteriophage therapy, CRISPR-based microbial editing, tailored probiotics, and artificial intelligence-driven microbiome analysis. Notwithstanding these encouraging advancements, there are still major obstacles to clinical translation, such as inter-individual microbiome heterogeneity, a lack of mechanistic knowledge of host-microbe interactions, and regulatory complexity. This review focuses on recent developments in drug delivery techniques, treatment outcomes for a range of disorders, existing tactics for targeted manipulation of the gut microbiome, and future prospects for microbiome-based precision medicine.
Keywords: Gut microbiome; Drug delivery systems; Microbiome-targeted therapy; Dysbiosis
How to cite this article: Sarmah A, Hazarika BJ, Das DK, Harshinee S, Prusty AK. Targeted Modulation of the Gut Microbiome: Drug Delivery Approaches and Therapeutic Outcomes. Int J Drug Deliv Technol. 2026;16(11s): 974-987. DOI: 10.25258/ijddt.16.11s.96
Source of support: Nil.
Conflict of interest: None