Advances in the discovery and functional analysis of Anti-infective and immunomodulatory natural products from host-associated microbiomes

Abstract

Covering: 2018 to 2025

Over recent years, metagenomic-driven studies have revealed an enormous encoded repertoire for the biosynthesis of secondary metabolite scaffolds within host-associated microbiota, yet only a small fraction of these chemical scaffolds has been characterized. This review focuses on recent discoveries of natural products with anti-infective and immunomodulatory properties derived from diverse host-associated microbiomes, covering the period from 2018 to 2025. The selected examples span a wide range of anti-infective and immunomodulatory activities, underscoring the deep integration of microbial secondary metabolism with host physiology, while also highlighting the need for more targeted and efficient combined approaches to fully exploit the predicted biosynthetic capacity of microbiomes for anti-infective research and beyond.