Malassezia restricta promotes alcohol-induced liver injury.

Authors

Suling Zeng, Phillipp Hartmann, Minji Park, Yi Duan, Sonja Lang, Cristina Llorente, Yanhan Wang, Noemí Cabré, Derrick E Fouts, Petra Bacher, Won Hee Jung, Peter Stärkel, Bernd Schnabl

Year of publication

2023

Journal

Hepatol Commun

Volume

7

Issue

2

ISSN

2471-254X

Impact factor

-

Abstract

Chronic alcohol consumption is associated with intestinal fungal dysbiosis, yet we understand little about how alterations of intestinal fungi (mycobiota) contribute to the pathogenesis of alcohol-associated liver disease. By reanalyzing internal transcribed spacer 2 amplicon sequencing of fecal samples from a cohort of 66 patients with alcohol use disorder for presence (as opposed to relative abundance) of fungal species, we observed that the presence of Malassezia restricta was associated with increased markers of liver injury. M. restricta exacerbates ethanol-induced liver injury both in acute binge and chronic ethanol-feeding models in mice. Using bone marrow chimeric mice, we found that the disease exacerbating effect by M. restricta was mediated by C-type lectin domain family 4, member N on bone marrow-derived cells. M. restricta induces inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in Kupffer cells through C-type lectin domain family 4, member N signaling. Targeting fungal pathobionts might be a therapeutic strategy for alcohol-associated liver disease.