Gut dysbiosis is suggested to play a critical role in the pathogenesis of gout. The aim of our study was to identify the characteristic dysbiosis of the gut microbiota in gout patients and the impact of a commonly used uric acid-lowering treatment, febuxostat on gut microbiota in gout. 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing and metagenomic shotgun sequencing was performed on fecal DNA isolated from 38 untreated gout patients, 38 gout patients treated with febuxostat, and 26 healthy controls. A restriction of gut microbiota biodiversity was detected in the untreated gout patients, and the alteration was partly restored by febuxostat. Biochemical metabolic indexes involved in liver and kidney metabolism were significantly associated with the gut microbiota composition in gout patients. Functional analysis revealed that the gut microbiome of gout patients had an enriched function on carbohydrate metabolism but a lower potential for purine metabolism, which was comparatively enhanced in the febuxostat treated gout patients. A classification microbial model obtained a high mean area under the curve up to 0.973. Therefore, gut dysbiosis characterizings gout could potentially serve as a noninvasive diagnostic tool for gout and may be a promising target of future preventive interventions.

肠道菌群失调被认为在痛风的发病机制中起关键作用。我们研究的目的是确定痛风患者肠道菌群的特征性失调，以及常用的降尿酸治疗非布索坦对痛风患者肠道菌群的影响。对 38 名未治疗的痛风患者、38 名接受非布司他治疗的痛风患者和 26 名健康对照者的粪便 DNA 进行 16S 核糖体 RNA 测序和宏基因组鸟枪法测序。在未经治疗的痛风患者中检测到肠道微生物群生物多样性的限制，并且非布索坦部分恢复了这种改变。参与肝肾代谢的生化代谢指标与痛风患者肠道菌群组成显着相关。功能分析显示，痛风患者的肠道微生物群对碳水化合物代谢具有丰富的功能，但嘌呤代谢的潜力较低，在非布索坦治疗的痛风患者中相对增强。分类微生物模型获得了高达 0.973 的曲线下平均面积。因此，以痛风为特征的肠道菌群失调可能成为痛风的非侵入性诊断工具，并可能成为未来预防干预的有希望的目标。