Photoaffinity probe-enabled discovery of sennoside A reductase in Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum

Sennoside A (SA), a typical prodrug, exerts its laxative effect only after its transformation into rheinanthrone catalyzed by gut microbial hydrolases and reductases. Hydrolases have been identified, but reductases remain unknown. By linking a photoreactive group to the SA scaffold, we synthesized a photoaffinity probe to covalently label SA reductases and identified SA reductases using activity-based protein profiling. From lysates of an active strain, Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum (B. pseudocatenulatum), 397 proteins were enriched and subsequently identified using mass spectrometry. Among these proteins, chromate reductase/nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH)-dependent flavin mononucleotide (FMN) reductase/oxygen-insensitive NADPH nitroreductase (nfrA) was identified as a potent SA reductase through further bioinformatic analysis and Uniprot database screening. We also determined that recombinant nfrA could reduce SA. Our study contributes to further illuminating mechanisms of SA transformation to rheinanthrone and simultaneously offers an effective method to identify gut bacterial reductases.