Conjugated bile acids are nutritionally re-programmable antihypertensive metabolites

Abstract

Background: Hypertension is the largest risk factor affecting global mortality. Despite available medications, uncontrolled hypertension is on the rise, whereby there is an urgent need to develop novel and sustainable therapeutics. Because gut microbiota is now recognized as an important entity in blood pressure regulation, one such new avenue is to target the gut-liver axis wherein metabolites are transacted via host-microbiota interactions. Knowledge on which metabolites within the gut-liver axis regulate blood pressure is largely unknown. Method: To address this, we analyzed bile acid profiles of human, hypertensive and germ-free rat models and report that conjugated bile acids are inversely correlated with blood pressure in humans and rats. Results: Notably intervening with taurine or tauro-cholic acid rescued bile acid conjugation and reduced blood pressure in hypertensive rats. Subsequently, untargeted metabolomics uncovered altered energy metabolism following conjugation of bile acids as a mechanism alleviating high blood pressure. Conclusion: Together this work reveals conjugated bile acids as nutritionally re-programmable anti-hypertensive metabolites.