The bidirectional interaction between our gut flora and drugs

Abstract

The term "pharmacogenetics" refers to the study of individual genetic variations that give rise to different responses to the intake of a drug. Recently, however, it has begun to think that an important role in this sense can also be played by our microbiota. The interaction between our gut microbial flora and drugs is actually bidirectional: evidence has accumulated that some drugs, in addition to classical antibiotics, have a strong impact on the composition of the microbiota.