Intestinal Microbiota Distinguish Gout Patients from Healthy Humans

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 6; no. 1; p. 20602
• Main Authors: Guo, Zhuang, Zhang, Jiachao, Wang, Zhanli, Ang, Kay Ying, Huang, Shi, Hou, Qiangchuan, Su, Xiaoquan, Qiao, Jianmin, Zheng, Yi, Wang, Lifeng, Koh, Eileen, Danliang, Ho, Xu, Jian, Lee, Yuan Kun, Zhang, Heping
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 08.02.2016; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 45/23; 45/47; 631/326/2565/2142; 631/326/325/1506; 692/4023/1670; Adult; Aged; Area Under Curve; Bacteria - genetics; Bacteria - isolation & purification; Bacteroides - genetics; Bacteroides - isolation & purification; Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum - genetics; Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum - isolation & purification; Biodegradation; Biomarkers - analysis; Biosynthesis; Butyrates - metabolism; Butyric acid; Case-Control Studies; Cirrhosis; Cohort Studies; Diabetes mellitus; Faecalibacterium prausnitzii - genetics; Faecalibacterium prausnitzii - isolation & purification; Fecal microflora; Feces - microbiology; Female; Gastrointestinal Microbiome; Gout; Gout - diagnosis; Gout - microbiology; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Intestinal microflora; Intestinal Mucosa - microbiology; Intestine; Liver; Liver cirrhosis; Male; Middle Aged; multidisciplinary; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Principal Component Analysis; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - chemistry; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - metabolism; ROC Curve; Science; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Uric Acid - blood
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep20602

Current blood-based approach for gout diagnosis can be of low sensitivity and hysteretic. Here via a 68-member cohort of 33 healthy and 35 diseased individuals, we reported that the intestinal microbiota of gout patients are highly distinct from healthy individuals in both organismal and functional structures. In gout, Bacteroides caccae and Bacteroides xylanisolvens are enriched yet Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum depleted. The established reference microbial gene catalogue for gout revealed disorder in purine degradation and butyric acid biosynthesis in gout patients. In an additional 15-member validation-group, a diagnosis model via 17 gout-associated bacteria reached 88.9% accuracy, higher than the blood-uric-acid based approach. Intestinal microbiota of gout are more similar to those of type-2 diabetes than to liver cirrhosis, whereas depletion of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and reduced butyrate biosynthesis are shared in each of the metabolic syndromes. Thus the Microbial Index of Gout was proposed as a novel, sensitive and non-invasive strategy for diagnosing gout via fecal microbiota.