Role of Probiotics in Pancreatic Cancer Prevention: The Prospects and Challenges

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is expressed as a disorder of chaos that leads to impairment in biochemical and metabolic physiology of pancreas. It is considered as the most intractable and fatal among all gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. The early occurrence of metastatic spread and the development of intrinsic and acquired resistance during drug treatment limit its prognosis at the right time. The universalized treatment involves surgical resection in which only a minority (<20%) of patients qualify due to advanced stage of disease at the time of diagnosis. Despite the rigorous technological developments in understanding the molecular mechanism of pancreatic cancer, no significant advances in efficacy of chemotherapeutic treatment have been arisen till date and still present challenges to overcome. That leads to the scientists to undergo exhaustive research to find an alternative treatment and increasing focus have been given on the studies of symbiotic relationships between microbiota and host which confers benefits to the host in many key aspects of life and form a synergistic harmony so called "super-organism". The perturbations in the regulatory circuits of the host that control homeostasis, or alterations of the microbiome, through environmental changes (infection, diet or lifestyle), may disturb this symbiotic relationship and favors carcinogenesis in the pancreas. Research studies speculating convincing evidence that, among the gut microbiota, probiotics have demonstrated their potential role in the prevention of all stages of cancer development, but the critical question has been arisen that Can probiotics be used as preventive targets for pancreatic cancer? Thus, the efforts have been directed towards to summarize the prospective and challenging role of probiotics as preventive approach for pancreatic cancer. Though prospects of probiotics in prevention of pancreatic cancer are being great challenge among research community therefore, more rigorous and well-designed in vitro, animal and clinical studies are required for worthy manifestations.

The synergistic tumor growth-inhibitory effect of probiotic Lactobacillus on transgenic mouse model of pancreatic cancer treated with gemcitabine

“…In both animal experiments and human trials, probiotics produce anti-inflammatory metabolites and have been proven to actively facilitate resolution of inflammation in various inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, including ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and multiple sclerosis 23 . Research studies have confirmed that the progression of pancreatic cancer is directly related to acute pancreatitis and chronic pancreatitis 24 . To clarify the potential role of probiotics in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, we conducted this animal trial using Kras - driven GEMM of PDAC.…”

Oral Dysbiosis in Pancreatic Cancer and Liver Cirrhosis: A Review of the Literature

“…These investigations were performed by involving Propionibacterium , a well-known dairy probiotic. Thus, PC risk could potentially be lowered by decreasing the bioavailability of these neoplastic components [118].…”

Metabiotics: The Functional Metabolic Signatures of Probiotics: Current State-of-Art and Future Research Priorities—Metabiotics: Probiotics Effector Molecules

“…The impressive potentially probiotics has been assessed in terms of health benefits, but the dilemmatic situation has been existed due to the risk associated with the consumption of probiotics due to their multiple mechanism of action which are dependent on specificity of strain and species utilized [8]. Therefore, substantial efforts are required for thorough understanding of their positive interplay with the host as well as other gut microbial systems at the molecular level [9]. Research studies confirmed that there is fine choreographed molecular networking between the host and probiotics in the form of small "molecular cues".…”