INFLUENCE OF GUT MICROBIOTA ON EPIGENETICS: MECHANISMS, ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF DISEASES, DIAGNOSTIC AND THERAPEUTIC POTENTIAL
The development and introduction of high-performance molecular genetic methods into practice allowed us, in recent years, to increase our knowledge of the epigenome and microbiome, which shed light on the mechanisms of development of various pathologies, such as cancer, immune-mediated, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. It was found that the dysbiosis of gut microbiota (GM), which often accompanies these diseases, can affect the epigenetic mechanisms of the regulation of the activity of individual genes either directly through a change in the composition of GM, or indirectly, through changes in metabolites, which are various biologically active substances (short-chain fatty acids, biotin, folic acid and other biologically active molecules). Indeed, correlations between epigenetic mechanisms regulating the activity of host genes, on one hand, and changes in the composition of its gut microbiota or metabolites produced by intestinal microorganisms, on the other, have been established in certain diseases. It served as the basis for assuming that GM can become a diagnostic marker for certain diseases, and that treating the intestinal dysbiosis by transplanting healthy microflora is an effective therapeutic strategy. In this article, we discuss the relationship between dysbiosis of the gut microbiota and the host’s epigenome, as well as the possibility of using the microbiome and epigenome as diagnostic and therapeutic targets.