Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0020500 (hyperoxaluria)
 912 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Background: Oxalobacter formigenes is a recently discovered anaerobic bacterium residing in the gastrointestinal tracts of most vertebrates, including humans. Evidence suggests that this bacterium plays an important symbiotic relationship with its hosts by regulating oxalic acid homeostasis. Oxalic acid is a ubiquitous toxic by-product of metabolism associated with numerous pathologic conditions, including hyperoxaluia, cardiac myopathy and conductance disorders, kidney stones, and even death. Despite the potential importance of O. formigenes in several major health disorders, the difficulty in culturing, isolating, and identifying this fastidious anaerobe has limited research of its disease associations. Because O. formigenes must use two unique enzymes to catabolize oxalic acid, this bacterium appeared to be a suitable model for DNA-based identification, thereby circumventing the labor-intensive procedures currently used. Methods and Results: In this study, genus- and group-specific oligonucleotide sequences were designed corresponding to homologous regions residing in the oxc gene that enodes for oxalyl-coenzyme A decarboxylase. A polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based amplification of the 5'end of this gene directly from genomic DNA isolated from various strains of O. formigenes was used to show that the genus- and group-specific oligonucleotide probes could identify and subgroup the bacterium. Field testing of this PCR-based detection system with 100 fecal cultures collected from children aged 0-12 years demonstrated the ease and efficacy with which O. formigenes can now be identified. Furthermore, these latter data provide a profile for the natural colonization of a human population with this intestinal bacterium. Conclusions: Development and use of this PCR-based detection system permit the rapid identification and classification of the gut-associated bacterium O. formigenes, thereby circumventing the need for the more labor-intensive and lengthy method currently used. The first field test of this detection system indicates that humans apparently do not become colonized with O. formigenes until they begin crawling about in the environment. Furthermore, studies investigating the association between several disorders (eg, kidney stones, irritable bowel syndrome, and hyperoxaluria) and the absence of the bacterium from the gut will now prove far easier.
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PMID:Evaluating Children in the Ukraine for Colonization With the Intestinal Bacterium Oxalobacter formigenes, Using a Polymerase Chain Reaction-based Detection System. 1046 96

Our aim was to investigate the role of renal colic, a clinical condition characterized by excruciating pain, in the etiopathogenesis of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Two groups of patients were enrolled in the study. Group I consisted of 59 patients (33 male and 26 female) with a median age of 41.9 (18 to 58) years. The patients in group I were admitted to our clinic with urinary stone disease and with a medical history of acute renal colic. Group II consisted of 55 patients (25 male and 30 female) with a median age of 40.1 (18 to 56) years, complaining of urologic abnormalities other than stone disease. IBS was diagnosed using Rome criteria. Metabolic analysis for stone disease was performed on patients in group I. The incidence of five metabolic abnormalities--low urine volume, hypercalciuria, hyperoxaluria, hyperuricosuria and hypocitraturia--in patients with and without irritable bowel disease was investigated. IBS was found in 16 of the 59 patients (27.1%) in group I and in 6 of the 55 patients (10.9%) in group II. The difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Relative risk of developing IBS was 2.48 times higher in patients with urinary stone disease than in those without stone disease. There was no statistically significant difference in the metabolic analysis of patients with and without IBS in group I. IBS causes great suffering. Urinary stone disease should be considered as an etiological factor during management of IBS patients. In the presence of gastrointestinal symptoms, a patient with a medical history of acute renal colic might be referred to a gastroenterologist.
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PMID:Is there a relation between irritable Bowel syndrome and urinary stone disease? 1581 Jun 50