Metabolic syndrome and synbiotic targeting of the gut microbiome

Metabolic syndrome (MetS), a global epidemic induced by poor dietary habits refers to a complex metabolic disorder that includes, among others, alterations in the gut microbiome. Because of high costs associated with long-term management of MetS, development of non-pharmacological approaches has attracted great attention from food companies. Generation of synbiotics is one promising strategy to ameliorate various aspects related to MetS. However, high-quality interventional clinical trials addressing the effects of synbiotics are still rare. In this review, we evaluate the most recent knowledge on the effects of synbiotics in human subjects with different metabolic manifestations of MetS.