The gut flora as a forgotten organ

The 2005 Nobel prize in Physiology and Medicine awarded to Robin Warren and Barry Marshall is a reminder that the solution to some human diseases does not reside solely within the host but rather might be found at the interface with the microbial environment. Manipulation of the flora is becoming a realistic therapeutic and prophylactic strategy for many infectious, inflammatory and even neoplastic diseases within the gut. However, the promise of pharmabiotics is unlikely to be completely fulfilled without greater attention to the secrets held within the forgotten inner organ represented by the enteric microflora. The flora might be a rich repository of metabolites that can be exploited for therapeutic benefit. Elucidating the molecular details of host–flora interactions is, therefore, a pre-requisite for a ‘bugs to drugs' programme of discovery.

link...

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1500832/?tool=pubmed

the idea here... as far as the pharmaceutical/chemical companies are concerned, is to harvest drugs from the microflora you SHOULD have... but don't due in part to pharmaceuticals.

grz-