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The impact of short-chain fatty acid–producing bacteria of the gut microbiota in hyperuricemia and gout diagnosis

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Abstract

Introduction/objectives

Persistent hyperuricemia is a key factor in gout; however, only 13.5% of hyperuricemic individuals manifest the disease. The gut microbiota could be one of the many factors underlying this phenomenon. We aimed to assess the difference in taxonomic and predicted functional profiles of the gut microbiota between asymptomatic hyperuricemia (AH) individuals and gout patients.

Methods

The V3–V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene of the gut microbiota of AH individuals, gout patients, and controls was sequenced. Bioinformatic analyses were carried out with QIIME2 and phyloseq to determine the difference in the relative abundance of bacterial genera among the study groups. Tax4fun2 was used to predict the functional profile of the gut microbiota.

Results

AH individuals presented a higher abundance of butyrate- and propionate-producing bacteria than gout patients; however, the latter had more bacteria capable of producing acetate. The abundance of Prevotella genus bacteria was not significantly different between the patients but was higher than that in controls. This result was corroborated by the functional profile, in which AH individuals had less pyruvate oxidase abundance than gout patients and less abundance of an enzyme that regulates glutamate synthetase activation than controls.

Conclusion

We observed a distinctive taxonomic profile in AH individuals characterized by a higher abundance of short-chain fatty acid-producing bacteria in comparison to those observed in gout patients. Furthermore, we provide scientific evidence that indicates that the gut microbiota of AH individuals could provide anti-inflammatory mediators, which prevent the appearance of gout flares.

Key Points

• AH and gout patients both have a higher abundance of Prevotella genus bacteria than controls.

• AH individuals’ gut microbiota had more butyrate- and propionate-producing bacteria than gout patients.

• The gut microbiome of AH individuals provides anti-inflammatory mediators that could prevent gout flares.

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Data availability

The data supporting the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

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Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to the participants for their time and involvement in this study. We would like to thank all staff members of the blood bank of INRLGII, especially Miguel Antonio Cervera Bustamante, Cecilia de los Angeles Nieto Gómez, Mónica Adelaida Saldaña García, María del Carmen Ramírez Flores, Graciela Morales Sánchez, Cristina Gutiérrez Mendoza, Dulce Verónica Santana Velazco, and Magdalena Gutiérrez Moreno. We also want to thank Aarón Vazquez-Mellado Montes de Oca for his logistic support in gout patient enrolment.

Funding

This study was supported by the Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitación “Luis Guillermo Ibarra Ibarra” and by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACYT) grant FORDECYT-PRONACES/87754/2020 and grant INF-2016–01-269675.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Gerociencias, Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitación “Luis Guillermo Ibarra Ibarra”, Calz México-Xochimilco 289, Coapa, Arenal Tepepan, 14389, Mexico City, México

    Gabriela A. Martínez-Nava, Laura E. Martínez-Gómez, Guadalupe E. Jiménez-Gutiérrez, Carlos Martínez-Armenta & Alberto López-Reyes

  2. Unidad de Vinculación Científica de La Facultad de Medicina UNAM-INMEGEN, Instituto Nacional de Medicina Genómica, Mexico City, México

    Eder O. Méndez-Salazar & Berenice Palacios-González

  3. Postgraduate Program in ICES, Facultad de Química, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico

    Eder O. Méndez-Salazar

  4. Servicio de Reumatología, Hospital General de México “Dr. Eduardo Liceaga”, Mexico City, México

    Janitzia Vázquez-Mellado

  5. Laboratorio de Líquido Sinovial, Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitación “Luis Guillermo Ibarra Ibarra”, Mexico City, México

    Yessica Zamudio-Cuevas, Karina Martínez-Flores & Javier Fernández-Torres

  6. Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Mexico City, México

    Adriana Francisco-Balderas

  7. Servicio de Reumatología, Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitación “Luis Guillermo Ibarra Ibarra”, Mexico City, México

    Carlos Lozada-Pérez

  8. Facultad de Estudios Superiores Iztacala, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, México

    Dafne L. Guido-Gómora

  9. Dirección General, Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitación “Luis Guillermo Ibarra Ibarra”, Mexico City, México

    Carlos Pineda

  10. Departamento de Reumatología, Instituto Nacional de Cardiología “Ignacio Chávez”, Mexico City, México

    Luis H. Silveira

  11. Laboratorio de Enfermedades Neuromusculares, División de Neurociencias Clínicas, Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitación “Luis Guillermo Ibarra Ibarra”, Mexico City, México

    Laura Sánchez-Chapul

  12. Laboratorio de Ingeniería de Tejidos Terapia Celular y Medicina Regenerativa, Instituto Nacional de Rehabilitación “Luis Guillermo Ibarra Ibarra”, Mexico City, México

    Roberto Sánchez-Sánchez

  13. Escuela de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Departamento de Bioingeniería, Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico City, México

    Roberto Sánchez-Sánchez

  14. Departamento de Nutrición Animal, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición Salvador Zubirán, Secretaria de Salud, Mexico City, Mexico

    María del Carmen Camacho-Rea

  15. Departamento de Epidemiología Genética, Centro de Investigaciones Sobre Enfermedades Infecciosas, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, México

    Ana I. Burguete-García, Citlalli Orbe-Orihuela & Alfredo Lagunas-Martínez

Authors
  1. Gabriela A. Martínez-Nava
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  2. Eder O. Méndez-Salazar
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alberto López-Reyes.

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The present study complies with the Declaration of Helsinki, all participants signed an informed consent letter prior to their enrolment, and the protocol was approved by INRLGII and the HGM ethics committee (INR28/15; DI/18/404-A/03/004; respectively).

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Martínez-Nava, G.A., Méndez-Salazar, E.O., Vázquez-Mellado, J. et al. The impact of short-chain fatty acid–producing bacteria of the gut microbiota in hyperuricemia and gout diagnosis. Clin Rheumatol 42, 203–214 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-022-06392-9

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