Gut Microbiota Parameters Potentially Useful in Clinical Perspective

Abstract

Interest in gut microbiota analyses is at an all-time high. Gut microbiota is thought to relate to an increasing range of diseases of interest to physicians and nutritionists. Overweight, obesity, response to diet, metabolic syndrome, low grade inflammation, diabetes and colon neoplasms could maybe be observed in microbiota if affordable markers were available. Possible biomarkers like the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio, the Gram-positive/Gram-negative ratio, the Prevotella/Bacteroides ratio, and the Fusobacterium nucleatum/Faecalibacterium prausnitzii ratio are here reviewed in a narrative way in the attempt to highlight their possible future role in routine practice and clinically relevant diagnostics.