Gastric cancers are a group of highly aggressive malignancies with a huge disease burden worldwide. Gastric infections, such as helicobacter pylori, can induce the occurrence of gastric cancers. However, the role of gastric infection in gastric cancer development is unclear. Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1, B7-H1) is a member of the B7 family of cell surface ligands, which binds the PD-1 transmembrane receptor and inhibits T-cell activation within cancer tissues. It has been reported that the expression of PD-L1 is inversely related to the prognosis of patients with gastric cancers. Therefore, the regulation of PD-L1 expression in gastric cancers needs to be studied. In the current study, we explored the possible effects of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on PD-L1 expression in gastric cancer cells. We observed that LPS stimulation could markedly increase PD-L1 expression in gastric cancer cells. Furthermore, we found that nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) activation was involved in PD-L1 expression in gastric cancer cells exposed to LPS stimulation through p65-binding to the PD-L1 promoter. Taken together, these data indicate that gastric infection might promote the development of gastric cancers thought the LPS-NF-κB-PD-L1 axis.

Observation of tongue coating, a foundation for clinical diagnosis and treatment in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), is a major indicator of the occurrence, development, and prognosis of disease. The biological basis of tongue diagnosis and relationship between the types and microorganisms of tongue coating remain elusive. Thirteen chronic erosive gastritis (CEG) patients with typical yellow tongue coating (YTC) and ten healthy volunteers with thin white tongue coating (WTC) were included in this study. Patients were provided a 2-course targeted treatment of a herbal medicine Ban Xia Xie Xin decoction, traditionally prescribed for CEG patients with YTC, to evaluate the relationship between tongue coating microbiota and diagnosis of CEG with typical YTC. The tongue coating segregation structure was determined using Illumina Miseq sequencing of the V4–V5 region of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene. Bacillus was significantly observed only in CEG patients with YTC, but not in patients who received the decoction. YTC (n = 22) and WTC (n = 29) samples were collected for bacterial culturing to illustrate the relationship between Bacillus and YTC. The Bacillus positivity rate of YTC samples was 72.7%; Bacillus was not observed in WTC samples. In conclusion, Bacillus was strongly associated with YTC.

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