Intestinal taurine acts as a novel immunometabolic modulator of IBD by degrading redundant mitochondrial RNA.

Abstract

Anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) therapy for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is hampered by issues of nonresponse and resistance, highlighting the urgent need for alternative or complementary treatments. Our study revealed significant upregulation of taurine in the intestinal tissues of IBD patients, which was inversely related to the severity of the disease. A key discovery was that TNF directly induced taurine synthesis in intestinal epithelial cells and increased the production of angiogenin, a nuclease that degrades mitochondrial RNA, which is known to amplify inflammatory responses. By degrading mitochondrial RNA, angiogenin inhibits the inflammatory response in macrophages, suggesting a potent immune-modulatory role for taurine. This mechanism implies that taurine could serve as an adjunct to anti-TNF therapies, enhancing their efficacy and providing a novel strategy for the management of IBD and other chronic inflammatory diseases by harnessing the body's innate immune regulatory mechanisms.