Bile salt hydrolase (BSH, EC3.5.1.24) is the bacterial gut microbiome-produced enzyme that hydrolyses the amide bond in conjugated primary bile acids (BAs) from glycine/taurine residues. In addition, BSH plays an essential role in maintenance of bile homeostasis, survival of gastrointestinal bacteria, and modulation of multiple host signaling pathways. The BSH family of enzymes is very diverse and widely spread among microbial genera. They are known to exhibit different deconjugation activity toward various BAs and possess various levels of enzymatic activities.

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We offer a unique set a novel optical BSH probes for ultrasensitive and cost-effective quantification of BSH activities across a wide range of biological settings such as pure enzymes, live bacteria and patient-derived stools8. These probes have also been successfully used for noninvasive real-time monitoring of BSH activity in the intact gastrointestinal tract of live mice and humans (10).

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The assay toolbox consists of four different imaging regents that are based on the most abundant BAs, namely, cholic acid (CA), deoxycholic acid (DCA), chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA), and lithocholic acid (LCA). This assay allows to investigate the interplay between different steroid scaffolds with respect to BSH activities.

 

10. The validation of these probes has been previously published in Sci. Adv. 2021; 7: eaaz9857.

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