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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.

Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1591735

This article is part of the Research TopicThe Gut Microbiome's Role in Gastric Cancer: Mechanisms and TherapiesView all 6 articles

Live Bacteria Found in Gastric Cancer Tumor Tissue Bacteria in Gastric Cancer

Provisionally accepted
Xiaoqian  LvXiaoqian Lv1Pengxia  SongPengxia Song2Nianhua  ZhangNianhua Zhang1Pengbo  GuoPengbo Guo1Rujian  ZhangRujian Zhang1Haitao  WangHaitao Wang1Longyan  HongLongyan Hong1Rui  XuRui Xu1Yu  WangYu Wang1Gang  LuGang Lu1Yinghui  ZhaoYinghui Zhao1*
  • 1Shandong first medical university, School of Clinical and Basic Medicine, Jinan, China
  • 2Quzhou College of Technology, Quzhou, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Helicobacter pylori as a causative agent and on the relationship between the microbiota and gastric cancer. There is no direct evidence of bacteria in gastric cancer tissues or their relationship with gastric cancer.Methods: Gastric cancer tissue samples were collected, and the bacteria within tumor tissues were observed by transmission electron microscopy. The bacteria cultured were stained by Gram Staining and then subjected to High-throughput third-generation fulllength 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Pure cultures were used to infect AGS gastric cancer cells, followed by protein extraction and Western blotting to detect POF1B protein expression.The bacteria were observed in tumor tissues through transmission electron microscopy and had been cultivated under microaerophilic and anaerobic conditions, specifically, then were identified as Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes), Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae), and Lactobacillus salivarius (L. salivarius). The vacuolation and mortality of AGS cell infected with P. acnes increased (p < 0.05) and the POF1B protein expression upregulated (p < 0.05).The live bacteria, including L. salivarius, P. acnes, and K. pneumoniae, have been found in gastric cancer tumor tissue. P. acnes specifically upregulate the oncogenic protein POF1B expression. The pathway through which this bacterium enters tumor tissue and its role in the tumor microenvironment require further investigation.

Keywords: gastric cancer, tumor tissue, Bacteria, Propionibacterium acnes, POF1B

Received: 15 Mar 2025; Accepted: 16 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Lv, Song, Zhang, Guo, Zhang, Wang, Hong, Xu, Wang, Lu and Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Yinghui Zhao, Shandong first medical university, School of Clinical and Basic Medicine, Jinan, China

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