Targeting of Gut Microbiota by Bioactive Peptides for the Improvement of Metabolic Diseases: A Review

ABSTRACT Metabolic diseases are a group of disorders characterized by disruptions in metabolic homeostasis, posing a growing global health burden. Emerging evidence highlights the gut microbiota as a central regulator of host metabolism, where dysbiosis contributes to chronic inflammation, impaired energy balance, and metabolic dysfunction. In this context, bioactive peptides (BPs), derived from dietary proteins, have attracted increasing attention due to their multifaceted biological activities and regulatory potential. This review systematically summarizes the current evidence on how BPs modulate gut microbiota composition, metabolic function, and microbe–host interactions. Mechanistically, BPs can reshape microbial communities, regulate the production of key metabolites such as short‐chain fatty acids, and improve intestinal barrier integrity and immune homeostasis. Through these coordinated effects, BPs influence multiple metabolic pathways involved in obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Importantly, this review highlights BPs as promising microbiota‐targeted modulators and outlines their underlying mechanisms as potential therapeutic targets and tentative intervention strategies for metabolic diseases. Collectively, these findings provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the role of BPs in the gut microbiota–metabolism axis and support their future application in precision nutrition and metabolic disease management.