ArticleNature microbiology2025
An expanded metabolic pathway for androgen production by commensal bacteria.
Article in Nature microbiology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed.
- Gut microbiome and pregnancy complications: emerging evidence and mechanistic insights.Gut microbes · 2026Review
- The urinary tract commensalApplied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- The urinary pathobiont Actinobaculum massiliense can generate androgens via the dirAB pathway.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Review
- Corisin induces proteostasis stress to drive epithelial injury and pulmonary fibrosis.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The microbiome regulates host metabolic health and diseases through microbial enzymes.Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2026Review
- Characterization of an NADPH-dependent 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase from a urinary tract bacterial isolate.The Journal of steroid biochemistry and molecular biology · 2026Article
- SpiR is a gut microbial enzyme that drives cholesterol conversion.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Gut Microbiota Metabolic Reprogramming Drives Endocrine and Immune Resistance in Hormone-Dependent Cancers.Cancers · 2026Review
- Quercetin upregulates steroid hormone biosynthesis to enhance reproductive performance in roosters.Poultry science · 2026Article
- The Urinary Tract commensalbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Androgen metabolism in prostate cancer: recent advances.Endocrinology · 2026Review
- Microbial regulation of stress-associated signaling molecules and its role in health and disease.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Review
- The testobolome in microbial testosterone metabolism and human health.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2026Review
- Gut-prostate axis in prostate cancer: microbiome signatures, mechanistic insights, and therapeutic opportunities.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Review
- SSTDhunter: a curated gene database for investigating androgen producing potential in microbiota species.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- Article
- Gut bacteria metabolize natural and synthetic steroid hormones via the reductive OsrABC pathway.Cell host & microbe · 2025Article
- Gut Bacteria Metabolize Natural and Synthetic Steroid Hormones via the Reductive OsrABC Pathway.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Decoding Microbiome's Role in Prostate Cancer Progression and Treatment Response.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
28 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Commensal bacteria have been implicated in the modulation of steroid hormones, including circulating androgen levels in the host. However, the microbial genetic pathways involved in androgen production have not been fully characterized. Here we identify a microbial gene encoding an enzyme that catalyses the conversion of androstenedione to epitestosterone in the gut microbiome member Clostridium scindens and named this gene desF. We demonstrate that epitestosterone impacts androgen receptor-dependent prostate cancer cell proliferation in vitro. We also demonstrate that stool desF levels are elevated in patients with prostate cancer who are unresponsive to abiraterone/prednisone therapy. Bacterial isolates from urine or prostatectomy tissue produced androgens, and 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase activity encoded by the desG gene was detected in strains of the urinary tract bacterium Propionimicrobium lymphophilum. Furthermore, we demonstrate that urinary androgen-producing bacterial strains can promote prostate cancer cell growth through metabolism of cortisol and prednisone. Abiraterone, which targets host desmolase (CYP17A1), a rate-limiting enzyme in adrenal steroidogenesis, does not inhibit bacterial desmolase (DesAB), whereas the conversion of prednisone to androgens by DesAB, DesF and DesG drives androgen-receptor-dependent prostate cancer cell line proliferation in vitro. Our results are a significant advance in steroid microbiology and highlight a potentially important role for gut and urinary tract bacteria in host endocrine function and drug metabolism.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.