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March 7, 2026Nature Communications2 citationsOpen Access

A gut microbiome-kidney-heart axis predictive of future cardiovascular diseases

KCKanta ChechiRCRima ChakarounAMAntonis Myridakis

Key Result

Gut microbiome-related metabolites involved in phenylalanine and tyrosine metabolism associate with circulating proANP and eGFR levels and predict future cardiovascular disease in a metabolically healthy European population.

Key Points

  • The aim is to explore the association between gut microbiome changes and the risk of cardiovascular diseases through kidney and heart function.
  • Analyzed gut microbiome variations and their relationship to cardiovascular risk markers.
  • Assessed aromatic amino acid metabolism in a healthy European cohort.
  • Used observational and genetic evidence to link metabolites to CVD risk in a Canadian population.
  • Detected associations between gut microbiome changes and subclinical heart and kidney function variations.
  • Identified specific metabolites related to aromatic amino acids linked to cardiovascular markers.
  • Found that microbiome-related metabolites predicted incident cardiovascular diseases in an external population.

Study Design

Type

Observational (n=275)

Multicenter

Yes

Structured PICO

P
Population
275 metabolically healthy individuals (BMI ≤ 25 kg/m2, no metabolic syndrome, no T2D, no ischaemic heart disease) and 1,602 individuals with cardiometabolic disease from the MetaCardis study (median age 58, 62% female, recruited from Germany, France, Denmark), plus an external validation cohort of 8,669 participants from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.
O
Outcome
Association of gut microbiome-related metabolites (phenylalanine and tyrosine metabolism) with circulating pro-atrial natriuretic peptide (proANP), estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), and incident cardiovascular disease.surrogate

Gut microbiome-derived metabolites from aromatic amino acids associate with subclinical cardiorenal markers and predict future cardiovascular disease, highlighting a novel gut-kidney-heart axis.

Limitations

  • Observational design limits causal inference despite genetic triangulation.
  • Sample size limited to 275 metabolically healthy individuals with additional analyses in larger cohorts but no randomized interventions.
  • Gut microbiome associations may be influenced by unmeasured confounders despite extensive adjustments.
  • Primary clinical endpoints are associations rather than clinical event adjudications or interventional outcomes.
  • Replication in independent cohorts provided but lacking interventional validation.

Abstract

Abstract Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) remain a major global health challenge. Early markers of disease initiation and progression are urgently needed. We, and others, have previously shown changes in the gut microbiome in association with metabolic and CVD. Here, we demonstrate that gut microbiome-related changes can be detected in association with subclinical variations in heart and kidney function. Markers related to gut microbial metabolism of aromatic amino acids, phenylalanine and tyrosine, associate with circulating pro-atrial natriuretic peptide and estimated glomerular filtration rate in a metabolically healthy European population. Observational and genetic evidence further identify microbiome-related metabolites as mediators of this gut microbiome-kidney axis, with their baseline levels associating with incident CVD in an external Canadian population. Altogether, our work suggests that the gut microbiome interacts with the cardiorenal axis and participates in an interorgan crosstalk affecting host physiology and risk of CVD.

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Cite This Study

Chechi et al. (2026) conducted an observational in Metabolically healthy European adults (BMI ≤ 25 kg/m2, no metabolic syndrome, no type 2 diabetes, no ischemic heart disease) aged 20-76 years (n=275). Gut microbiome-related metabolites involved in phenylalanine and tyrosine metabolism associate with circulating proANP and eGFR levels and predict future cardiovascular disease in a metabolically healthy European population.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69abc2855af8044f7a4ec34bhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-69405-0
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