Microbial profiling identifies potential key drivers in gastric cancer patients

Abstract

Gastric cancer (GC) is the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer and the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the world. Microbiota is believed to be associated with GC. Growing evidences showed Helicobacter pylori played a key role in GC development. However, little was known about the microbiota in gastric juices and tissues in GC patients, and thus it was difficult to understand other potential microbial causation for GC. Here, we collected the gastric juice and surgically removed gastric tissues from GC patients to give insight into GC microbiota. Most microbes identified in the gastric samples were opportunistic pathogens or resident flora of the human microbiota. Further network analyses identified five opportunistic pathogens as keystone species. H. pylori is the direct cause of GC, but other opportunistic microbes might also function in GC development. The microbiota in the gastric juice and gastric tissue of the GC patients were complex, and some dominant opportunistic pathogens contributed to the GC development. This study introduces microbiota in gastric juice, gastric normal tissue and gastric cancer tissue of GC patients, and highlights the potential keystone microbes functioned during GC development.

Advancements in the impact of human microbiota and probiotics on leukemia

“…Probiotics are therapeutic formulations that contain identified, propagated, or engineered probiotics, aiming to provide health benefits or enhance standard care ( Singh et al, 2023 ). Various beneficial mechanisms of probiotics for the prevention and treatment of human diseases have been identified, including the regulation of gut microbiota, strengthening of the intestinal barrier, protection of the intestinal epithelium from pathogenic invasion, and enhancement of the immune system ( Li et al, 2021 ; Lu et al, 2021 ). Hence, specific probiotic strains may have a significant impact on cancer prevention, potentially through the regulation of gut microbiota and immune response, suggesting their potential use in cancer prevention as well as adjunct therapy alongside anti-cancer chemotherapy ( Śliżewska et al, 2020 ; Liu et al, 2021 ).…”

Applying multi‐omics toward tumor microbiome research

“…These tumor microbes cause about 2.2 million cases every year or ~13% of cancer cases worldwide. Furthermore, researchers have found that live microbes exist in many kinds of tumors (Figure 1 ), including breast cancer [ 3 ], colorectal cancer [ 4 , 5 ], hepatocellular carcinoma [ 6 , 7 ], pancreatic cancer [ 8 , 9 ], skin cancer [ 10 ], renal cell carcinoma [ 11 ], gastric cancer [ 12 ], lung cancer [ 13 , 14 ], prostate cancer [ 15 – 17 ], nasopharyngeal carcinoma [ 18 ], and so forth. Notably, microbes in the same type of tumors have striking similarities [ 19 ].…”

An attempt to find the correlations between body weight and the composition of gut microbiota in Zhejiang and Shanghai

“…Further studies have shown that short-chain fatty acids and short-chain fatty acid-producing microbes are closely related to obesity [9], and probiotics regulation is expected to prevent and reduce the incidence of obesity. However, the composition of gut microbiota in different populations is affected by a variety of factors such as diet, lifestyle, genetics, and environment, especially the gut microbiota of populations in different regions are different [23]. Therefore, on the basis of existing studies, in-depth analysis of gut microbiota in specific areas is conducive to the analysis and precise regulation of gut microbiota and provide a scientific basis for the prevention and treatment of obesity.…”