Despite significant advances in treating infectious diseases worldwide, morbidity and mortality associated with pathogen infection remains extraordinarily high and represents a critical scientific and global health challenge. Current strategies to combat these infectious agents include a combination of vaccines, small molecule drugs, increased hygiene standards, and disease-specific interventions. While these approaches have helped to drastically reduce the incidence and number of deaths associated with infection, continued investment in current strategies and the development of novel therapeutic approaches will be required to address these global health threats. Recently, human- and vector-associated microbiotas, the assemblages of microorganisms living on and within their hosts, have emerged as a potentially important factor mediating both infection risk and disease progression. These complex microbial communities are involved in intricate and dynamic interactions with both pathogens as well as the innate and adaptive immune systems of their hosts. Here, we discuss recent findings that have illuminated the importance of resident microbiotas in infectious disease, emphasizing opportunities for novel therapeutic intervention and future challenges for the field. Our discussion will focus on four major global health threats: tuberculosis, malaria, HIV, and enteric/diarrheal diseases. We hope this Perspective will highlight the many opportunities for chemists and chemical biologists in this field as well as inspire efforts to elucidate the mechanisms underlying established disease correlations, identify novel microbiota-based risk factors, and develop new therapeutic interventions.

中文翻译：

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人类微生物群，传染病和全球健康：挑战与机遇

尽管在世界范围内治疗传染病方面取得了重大进展，但与病原体感染相关的发病率和死亡率仍然异常高，这代表了严峻的科学和全球健康挑战。当前与这些传染病作斗争的策略包括疫苗，小分子药物，提高的卫生标准和针对疾病的干预措施的组合。尽管这些方法已帮助大大减少了与感染有关的发病率和死亡人数，但仍需要继续投资当前的策略并开发新的治疗方法来应对这些全球性健康威胁。最近，人类和与载体相关的微生物群，即生活在其宿主内和宿主内的微生物的集合，已经成为介导感染风险和疾病进展的潜在重要因素。这些复杂的微生物群落与病原体及其宿主的固有免疫系统和适应性免疫系统发生复杂而动态的相互作用。在这里，我们讨论了最近的发现，这些发现阐明了微生物群落在传染病中的重要性，强调了新型治疗干预的机会以及该领域的未来挑战。我们的讨论将集中在四个主要的全球健康威胁上：结核病，疟疾，艾滋病毒和肠/腹泻疾病。我们希望本《观点》将重点介绍该领域的化学家和化学生物学家许多机会，并激发人们努力阐明已建立的疾病相关性的潜在机制，