Future prospects of probiotics as therapeutics against enteric disorders

Enteric disorders (encompassing both enteric infections and inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease) are a significant public health issue worldwide. Enteric infections can be caused by bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses, while the aetiology of inflammatory bowel disease remains to be elucidated. With increases in antibiotic resistance, the emergence of multidrug resistant strains and the ambiguity surrounding the causes of inflammatory bowel disease, treatment is difficult. The development of new and improved therapies for enteric disorders is thus a clinical imperative. Against this backdrop the application of probiotic microorganisms as therapeutic agents has yielded encouraging results. Herein, we outline a number of cases where probiotics have been successful in the treatment of various enteric disorders and discuss methods by which probiotic strains may be manipulated to create so-called 'designer probiotics', including patho-biotechnology, metagenomics and meta-biotechnology.