Butyrate Affects Bacterial Virulence: A New Perspective on Preventing Enteric Bacterial Pathogen Invasion

Abstract

Enteric bacterial pathogens are a major threat to intestinal health. With the widespread use of antibiotics, bacterial resistance has become a problem, and there is an urgent need for a new treatment to reduce dependence on antibiotics. Butyrate can control enteric bacterial pathogens by regulating the expression of their virulence genes, promoting the posttranslational modification of their proteins, maintaining an anaerobic environment, regulating the host immune system and strengthening the intestinal mucosal barrier. Here, this review describes the mechanisms by which butyrate regulates the pathogenicity of enteric bacterial pathogens from various perspectives and discusses the prospects and limitations of butyrate as a new option for the control of pathogenic bacteria.

Keywords::

• bacterial virulence
• butyrate
• enteric pathogens
• intestinal microbiota
• intestinal mucosal barrier
• lysine butyrylation
• post-translational modifications
• short-chain fatty acids

Author contributions

X Liu drafted the manuscript. H Tang, X Huang and M Xu critically reviewed and revised the manuscript. All authors approved the final manuscript.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank International Science Editing (http://www.internationalscience-editing.com) for English language editing. The authors thank Biorender for providing the professionally designed figure elements for this article.

Financial disclosure

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82072754) and the Natural Science Research of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (20KJA310006). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Competing interests disclosure

The authors have no competing interests or relevant affiliations with any organization or entity with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Writing disclosure

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82072754) and the Natural Science Research of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (20KJA310006). The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.