On April 20, 2023, Professor Shimin Zhao and his collaborators at Fudan University published their research findings entitled “Amino acids downregulate SIRT4 to detoxify ammonia through the urea cycle” in Nature Metabolism.

Ammonia production via glutamate dehydrogenase is inhibited by SIRT4, a sirtuin that displays both amidase and non-amidase activities. The processes underlying the regulation of ammonia removal by amino acids remain unclear. Here, we report that SIRT4 acts as a decarbamylase that responds to amino acid sufficiency and regulates ammonia removal. Amino acids promote lysine 307 carbamylation (OTC^CP-K307) of ornithine transcarbamylase (OTC), which activates OTC and the urea cycle. Proteomic and interactome screening identified OTC as a substrate of SIRT4. SIRT4 decarbamylates OTC^CP-K307 and inactivates OTC in an NAD⁺-dependent manner. SIRT4 expression was transcriptionally upregulated by the amino acid insufficiency-activated GCN2-eIF2α-ATF4 axis. SIRT4 knockout in cultured cells caused higher OTC^CP-K307 levels, activated OTC, elevated urea cycle intermediates and urea production via amino acid catabolism. Sirt4 ablation decreased male mouse blood ammonia levels and ameliorated CCl₄-induced hepatic encephalopathy phenotypes. We reveal that SIRT4 safeguards cellular ammonia toxicity during amino acid catabolism.

Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42255-023-00784-0