Gut bacterium found to destroy nicotine offers liver health benefits for smokers

A gut microbe has been discovered that can break down nicotine and, if abundant enough, may reduce harm to smokers, reports a Sino-American collaboration. This finding might one day translate into a therapy that saves lives.

The work began with a clinical trial in China that found an ‘unexpected’ accumulation of nicotine in the gut, with nicotine and its metabolites detected in human stool samples, says Frank Gonzalez at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. A screen of stool samples from smokers and non-smokers then led to the identification of a bacterium that degraded nicotine. The bacterium, Bacterioides xylanisolvens, was demonstrated to break down nicotine in culture.