Intestinal Microbiota Distinguish Gout Patients from Healthy Humans

TLDR

Current blood‑based gout diagnosis has low sensitivity and hysteresis. The study proposes the Microbial Index of Gout as a novel, sensitive, non‑invasive diagnostic strategy. This index is derived from fecal microbiota profiles. In a 68‑member cohort, gout patients exhibited a distinct intestinal microbiota with enrichment of *Bacteroides caccae* and *Bacteroides xylanisolvens*, depletion of *Faecalibacterium prausnitzii* and *Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum*, and disrupted purine degradation and butyrate biosynthesis; a 17‑bacteria model achieved 88.9% diagnostic accuracy, outperforming serum uric acid, and the microbial profile resembled that of type‑2 diabetes more than liver cirrhosis.

Abstract

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.