Abstract
The skin microbiome is an extensive community of bacteria, fungi, mites,
and viruses colonizing the skin. Fluctuations in the composition of the
skin microbiome have been observed in atopic dermatitis (AD) and food
allergy (FA), particularly in early life, established disease, and
associated with therapeutics. However, AD is a multifactorial disease
characterized by skin barrier aberrations modulated by genetics,
immunology, and environmental influences, thus the skin microbiome is
not the sole feature of this disease. Future research should focus on
mechanistic understanding of how early life skin microbial shifts may
influence AD and FA onset, to guide potential early intervention
strategies or as microbial biomarkers to identify high-risk infants who
may benefit from possible microbiome-based biotherapeutic strategies.
Harnessing skin microbes as AD biotherapeutics is an emerging field, but
more work is needed to investigate whether this approach can lead to
sustained clinical responses.