Lantibiotic-encoding Streptococcus in the human microbiome are underlying risk factors for liver diseases

Recently, Streptococcus has been reported to be the etiology of several infectious diseases such as brain abscess and bacteremia in Journal of Infection. 1 Darlow C.A. McGlashan N. Kerr R. Oakley S. Pretorius P. Jones N. et al. Microbial aetiology of brain abscess in a UK cohort: prominent role of Streptococcus intermedius. J. Infect. 2020; 80: 623-629 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (8) Google Scholar ,2 Lee C.C. Feng Y. Chen C.L. Yeh Y.M. Hsu M.H. Liao W.T. et al. Genomic analysis of maternal carriage of group B Streptococcus and transmission routes of neonatal sepsis. J. Infect. 2021; 83: 709-737 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (1) Google Scholar Here, we reported that Streptococcus sp. C150 and Streptococcus vestibularis, which encode lantibiotics, are potential risk factors for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and liver cirrhosis (LC), as revealed by a comparison of the gut microbiome of healthy subjects (n = 2042) and patients with diseases, including metabolic disorders, liver diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, and neurological disorders (n = 1683). We showed that the lantibiotic genes are frequently present and highly abundant in the gut microbiome of the patients with NAFLD and LC. Additionally, the deletion of these genes reduces toxicity to liver cells.