AUTHOR=Hua Hanju , Sun Yanhong , He Xinjue , Chen Yi , Teng Lisong , Lu Chao 

TITLE=Intestinal Microbiota in Colorectal Adenoma-Carcinoma Sequence

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2022.888340

DOI=10.3389/fmed.2022.888340

ISSN=2296-858X

ABSTRACT=Background: Most of colorectal cancer (CRC) cases are sporadic and develop along the adenoma-carcinoma sequence. Intestinal microbial dysbiosis involved in the development of colorectal cancer. However, there are still no absolute markers predicting the progression from adenoma to carcinoma. This study aimed to investigate the characteristics of intestinal microbiota in colorectal adenoma and carcinoma patients and the correlations with clinical characteristics.
Methods: Fecal samples were collected from 154 CRC patients, 20 colorectal adenoma (AD) patients and 199 healthy controls. 16S rRNA gene sequencing was conducted to analyzed the differences in the intestinal microbiota.
Results: At the genus level, there were four significantly different genera among the three groups, namely Acidaminococcus, Alloprevotella, Mycoplasma and Sphingobacterium, while Acidaminococcus significantly decreased with the order of Control-AD-CRC (P<0.05). In addition, Parvimonas, Peptostreptococcus, Prevotella, Butyricimonas, Alistipes, and Odoribacter were the key genera in the network of colorectal adenoma/carcinoma-associated bacteria. Top ten most important species, including Butyricimonas synergistica, Agrobacterium larrymoorei, Bacteroides plebeius, Lachnospiraceae bacterium feline oral taxon 001, Clostridium scindens Clostridium scindens, Prevotella heparinolytica, bacterium LD2013, Streptococcus mutans, Lachnospiraceae bacterium 19gly4, and Eubacterium hallii, showed the best performance in distinguishing AD from CRC (AUC=85.54%, 95%CI: 78.83%-92.25%). The clinicopathologic features, including age, gender, tumor location, differentiation degree, and TNM stage, were identified to be closely linked to the intestinal microbiome in CRC.
Conclusion: Several intestinal bacteria changed along the adenoma-carcinoma sequence and might be the potential markers for the diagnosis and treatment of colorectal adenoma/carcinoma. Intestinal microbiota characteristics in CRC should account for the host factors.