Department of Pathogenic Biology, Department of Special Medicine, School of Basic Medicine, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China.
Department of Clinical Laboratory, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, China.
mSphere. 2024 Jun 25;9(6):e0002524. doi: 10.1128/msphere.00025-24. Epub 2024 May 30.
Hyperuricemia has become the second most prevalent metabolic disease after diabetes, but the limitations of urate-lowering treatment (ULT) drugs and patient nonadherence make ULT far less successful. Thus, more ULT approaches urgently need to be explored. Uric acid-degrading bacteria have potential application value in ULT. In this study, we isolated 44XB, a uric acid-degrading bacterium, from black-headed gull () feces. Using a polyphasic taxonomic approach, strain 44XB was identified as a novel genus within the family ; subsequently, the name was proposed. Strain 44XB had a unique uric acid-dependent phenotype and utilized uric acid and allantoin as the sole carbon and nitrogen sources, but not common carbon sources or complex media. In the genome, multiple copies of genes involved in uric acid metabolic pathway (, , , and ) were found. Six copies of (encoding urate oxidase) were detected. Of these, five copies were in a tandem arrangement and shared 70.42%-99.70% amino acid identity. experiments revealed that 44XB reduced serum uric acid levels and attenuated kidney damage in hyperuricemic mice through uric acid catalysis in the gut and gut microbiota remodeling. In conclusion, our findings discover a strain for studying bacterial uric acid metabolism and may provide valuable insights into ULT.
The increasing disease burden of hyperuricemia highlights the need for new therapeutic drugs and treatment strategies. Our study describes the developmental and application values of natural uric acid-degrading bacteria found in the gut of birds and broadened the source of bacteria with potential therapeutic value. Furthermore, the special physiology characteristics and genomic features of strain 44XB are valuable for further study.
高尿酸血症已成为继糖尿病之后第二大常见代谢性疾病，但降尿酸治疗 (ULT) 药物的局限性和患者不依从性使得 ULT 的效果远不如预期。因此，迫切需要探索更多的 ULT 方法。尿酸降解细菌在 ULT 中有潜在的应用价值。在这项研究中，我们从黑头鸥的粪便中分离出了一株尿酸降解细菌 44XB。通过多相分类学方法，鉴定菌株 44XB 为科中的一个新属；随后提出了 的名称。菌株 44XB 具有独特的尿酸依赖性表型，可将尿酸和尿囊素作为唯一的碳氮源利用，但不能利用常见的碳源或复杂的培养基。在基因组中，发现了多个参与尿酸代谢途径（、、、和）的基因。检测到 6 个 （编码尿酸氧化酶）拷贝。其中，5 个 拷贝串联排列，具有 70.42%-99.70%的氨基酸同一性。 实验表明，44XB 通过肠道中的尿酸催化和肠道微生物群重塑，降低了高尿酸血症小鼠的血清尿酸水平并减轻了肾脏损伤。总之，我们的研究发现了一种用于研究细菌尿酸代谢的菌株，可能为 ULT 提供有价值的见解。
高尿酸血症的疾病负担不断增加，这凸显了对新型治疗药物和治疗策略的需求。我们的研究描述了在鸟类肠道中发现的天然尿酸降解细菌的开发和应用价值，并拓宽了具有潜在治疗价值的细菌来源。此外，菌株 44XB 的特殊生理特征和基因组特征对于进一步研究具有重要价值。
