Engineered probiotic Escherichia coli-mediated intestinal nicotine clearance alleviates nonalcoholic steatohepatitis in mice
Abstract
Nicotine accumulates in the gut and drives non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) via the gut-liver axis, yet no effective clinical intervention is currently available. To address this challenge, the probiotic Escherichia coli Nissle 1917 (EcN) was engineered for in situ nicotine clearance in the gut. Mutational screening of nicotine oxidoreductase 2 (PpNicA2) identified a highly active variant, PpNicA2A107R. Its incorporation into EcN together with an electron transfer protein (CycN) and a newly identified transporter (T3/T7) yielded 80% nicotine-degrading activity. Chromosomal integration of this module generated a stable strain, EcN-N12, which in NASH mouse models depleted intestinal nicotine, rescued hepatic lipid metabolism, alleviated tissue damage, and intercepted the nicotine-mediated gut-liver axis pathological progression. This work thus offers an effective and clinically translatable approach for nicotine-associated diseases.
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- biorxiv v1 2026-07-09 source ↗
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bioRxiv Synthetic Biology @biorxiv-synthbio.bsky.social · 1641 followers neutral
Engineered probiotic Escherichia coli-mediated intestinal nicotine clearance alleviates nonalcoholic steatohepatitis in mice https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.02.736048v1
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bioRxivpreprint @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 8895 followers neutral
Engineered probiotic Escherichia coli-mediated intestinal nicotine clearance alleviates nonalcoholic steatohepatitis in mice https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.02.736048v1