Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Microbiome and metabolism

A gut bacterium tackles atherosclerosis

Nature Metabolism volume 4, pages 1221–1222 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

Gut commensal bacteria and their metabolites can contribute to metabolic diseases. Qiao, Liu et al. reveal that expansion of Parabacteroides merdae attenuates experimental atherosclerosis.

Metabolites from gut commensals such as amino acids have been implicated in the control of the immune system, and several exciting interactions between the gut microbiome and CVD have been described5. For example, Fromentin et al. demonstrated that 75% of microbiome and metabolome components that distinguish patients with ischaemic heart disease (IHD) from healthy individuals are already present years before IHD manifests — that is, at the time of dysmetabolism6. Interestingly, drugs frequently used in this population, such as statins or β-blockers, restored bacterial cell load (as shown previously). The findings from the study by Fromentin et al. are also supported by the demonstration that bacterial and metabolomic alterations precede coronary artery disease (at earlier dysmetabolic stages)7. Indeed, various other large studies support the notion that microbiome composition is predictive for various cardiometabolic risk factors, including hyperglycaemia, lipid profiles and inflammatory parameters8.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: A synthetic ganoderma-meroterpene derivative (GMD) ameliorates experimental atherosclerosis by modulating gut microbial metabolism.

References

  1. Liwinski, T., Leshem, A. & Elinav, E. Trends Mol. Med. 27, 298–301 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Qiao, S. et al. Nat. Metab. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-022-00649-y (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Wang, K. et al. J. Med. Chem. 61, 3609–3625 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Qiao, S. et al. Cell Rep. 32, 108005 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Dodd, D. et al. Nature 551, 648–652 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Fromentin, S. et al. Nat. Med. 28, 303–314 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Talmor-Barkan, Y. et al. Nat. Med. 28, 295–302 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Asnicar, F. et al. Nat. Med. 27, 321–332 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Wang, D. D. et al. Nat. Med. 27, 333–343 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Wang, Z. et al. Nature 472, 57–63 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Tang, W. H. et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 368, 1575–1584 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Zhu, W. et al. Cell 165, 111–124 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Sanchez-Gimenez, R. et al. Nutrients 14, 2654 (2022).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Li, J., Lin, S., Vanhoutte, P. M., Woo, C. W. & Xu, A. Circulation 133, 2434–2446 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the excellence initiative VASCage (Centre for Promoting Vascular Health in the Ageing Community), an R&D K-Centre (COMET program — Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies) funded by the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology, the Austrian Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs and the federal states of Tyrol, Salzburg and Vienna. T.E.A. is grateful for support from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF P33070) and the European Research Council (ERC STG 101039320).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine I, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Endocrinology & Metabolism, Medical University Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria

    Herbert Tilg & Timon E. Adolph

Authors
  1. Herbert Tilg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Timon E. Adolph
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Herbert Tilg.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tilg, H., Adolph, T.E. A gut bacterium tackles atherosclerosis. Nat Metab 4, 1221–1222 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-022-00648-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-022-00648-z

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing