Chinese scientists find unique alcohol-producing gut bacteria may cause liver disease
An unusual case of a patient with severe liver damage, and suffering from auto-brewery syndrome (ABS), who consistently became drunk after eating high-carbohydrate meals, has led some Chinese researchers to find a kind of gut bacteria that produces high levels of alcohol in the body and may quicken the onset of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
ABS is a rare condition whereby patients develop high blood alcohol concentrations spontaneously after consuming alcohol-free, high-carbohydrate meals. Studying the patient’s ABS-altered gut microbiome, several highly unique strains of a relatively common bacterial species called Klebsiella pneumonia (K. pneumonia) were seen to produce alcohol in the body – some had the ability to produce four to six times as much alcohol as strains found in healthy people.
The researchers hypothesised that K. pneumonia might play a role in the onset of NAFLD and examined microbiome samples from 43 NAFLD patients in China to confirm it. Around 60% of the patients were found to have the alcohol-producing bacterial strains, compared to only around 6% of a healthy control group who had the same alcohol-producing gut bacteria. Further, mouse studies revealed that NAFLD could be directly induced through the presence of K. pneumonia strains, but when a specific antibiotic was administered, some liver disease symptoms could be reversed. As such, targeting these bacteria may provide some benefit in the treatment of fatty liver disease.
Di Liu, of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), said the K. pneumonia bacteria likely enter people’s bodies on exposure to carriers from the environment, including food, “But I don’t think the carriers are prevalent – otherwise we would expect much higher rate of NAFLD.”
“Also, some people may have a gut environment that’s more suitable for the growth and colonisation of K. pneumonia than others because of their genetics.”
An intriguing question has also arisen from the study, which the researchers are still experimenting on: would its human carriers have a high tolerance for alcohol, much like someone who drinks copiously but remains relatively sober?
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