Can we change our microbiome to prevent colorectal cancer development?

Abstract

Background. Colorectal cancer represents an important disease as one of the major causes of death worldwide. Although a lot of genetic and epigenetic research has been conducted, all the pieces of the puzzle of colorectal cancer carcinogenesis have not yet been identifi ed. New recent data has highlighted that gut microbiota could have an infl uence on colorectal carcinogenesis. Gut microbiota represents the microbe population living in the human intestine and contains tens of trillions of microorganisms. Material and methods . A systematic search in Medline and PubMed for studies reporting the infl uence of gut microbiota and infl ammation on patients with colorectal cancer was made.Results . In this review we discuss many of the specifi c bacteria, as well as their metabolites which may have an important role in development of colorectal cancer. Furthermore, we emphasize the molecular mechanisms modulated by gut microbiota, which promote infl ammation, toxic metabolites, DNA damaging and pro-carcinogenic compounds, as support for colorectal carcinogenesis. The interrelation between microbiota and infl ammation is complex because bacteria and infl ammation could mutually impact upon each other. In this context, both endogenous and exogenous miRNAs may have an important role to modulate tumor-related infl ammation in colorectal cancer. Conclusions. Better understanding of the role of gut microbiota in colorectal carcinogenesis could provide promising new directions to improve both prevention and treatment of colorectal cancer. Moreover, the discovery of novel biomarkers in the gut microbiome in order to detect colorectal cancer in an early stage or even in a precancerous stage is of outmost importance.

Ginsenosides Rb3 and Rd reduce polyps formation while reinstate the dysbiotic gut microbiota and the intestinal microenvironment in ApcMin/+ mice

“…Especially, the abundances of species from genera Butyricimonas , Campylobacter , Dysgonomonas , Fusobacterium and Helicobacter were lower in Rb3/Rd treated mice compared to control group (Table S5 ). Previously, genus Campylobacter has been abundantly detected in CRC patient 39 . We detected two species from genus Campylobacter (C. canadensis and C. faecalis ) and both the species were less abundant in Rb3/Rd treated groups.…”

Effects of Walnut Consumption on Colon Carcinogenesis and Microbial Community Structure

“…Dietary changes can cause dramatic and rapid alterations to bacterial community structure, leading to important alterations in the luminal formation of a wide range of microbial metabolites (41). Early stages of tumor development, particularly at the initiation phase, can be influenced by microbial community structure, mediated in part via the formation of key metabolic products (42). For example, bacteria utilize dietary fiber to produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), such as acetate, propionate, and butyrate that have anti-inflammatory properties (reviewed in ref.…”

Byproduct Cross Feeding and Community Stability in an In Silico Biofilm Model of the Gut Microbiome

“…To date, the most widely studied system is the gut microbiome due to its critical role in food metabolism [26][27][28], profound influence on the immune system [29,30] and suspected role in a wide variety of diseases including gut infections [31], inflammatory bowel and Crohn's diseases [32,33], obesity [34], diabetes [35], cardiovascular disease [36], rheumatoid arthritis [37], colorectal cancer [38] and even depression [39]. The human gut microbiome is a highly complex multispecies system thought to consist of at approximately 1800 genera and 15,000-36,000 species of microbes [40].…”