ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Gastrointestinal Cancers: Colorectal Cancer
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1604876
This article is part of the Research TopicDeciphering Microbial Metabolites: Their Impact on Gastrointestinal and Metabolic HealthView all 10 articles
Characteristic Metabolite Profile of 10 Colorectal Cancer-related Bacteria
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
- 2Shanghai East Hospital, School of Medicine, Tongji University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
- 3Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
- 4Shanghai Cancer Center, Fudan University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
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Background: Tumor metabolomics of colorectal cancer (CRC) is significantly different from normal tissues, due to nutrient deprivation, metabolite accumulation, acidity and hypoxia. Besides, gut microbiota has been confirmed to affect the progression of CRC. Microbiota metabolites might participate in the metabolic reprogramming of CRC cells and further regulate tumor microenvironment.Method: 10 CRC-related strains are cultured in vitro (10 replicates per bacterium), including Enterotoxic Escherichia coli (ETEC), Peptostreptococcus anaerobius (Pa), Fusobacterium necroporum (Fne), Fusobacterium nucleatum (Fn), Lactobacillus plantarum (Lp), Lactobacillus acidophilus (La), Lactobacillus casei (Lc), Lactobacillus rhamnosus gg (LGG), Bifidobacterium bifidum (Bbi), Bifidobacterium Breve (Bbr). Bacterial culture supernatant is subjected to gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.The 10 CRC-related strains have characteristic metabolite profiles, mainly referring to specific saccharides, amino acids, bile acids, polyamines and bioactive compounds. Saccharides and organic acids increase significantly in Lactobacillus (Lp, LA, Lc and LGG) compared with culture medium and other strains, such as galactinol, 1-ketose, beta-gentiobiose, glutaric acid, 3-phenyllactic acid, indlol-3-lactate. Chlorogenic acid, a beneficial polyphenol, increases significantly in Bbr. The abundance of amino acids and their derivatives changes significantly in Bifidobacterium (Bbi and Bbr), such as 2-hydroxy-2methylbutanoic acid, N-acetyl-5-hydroxytryptamine and glutamate. Bile acids (lithocholic acid and cholic acid), polyamine (spermine), amino acids and derivatives (N-acetylaspartate, glutamate) increased significantly in the CRC-related pathogens (ETEC, Pa, Fn and Fne). Correspondingly, metabolic pathways are significantly affected, mainly including amino acid metabolism and nucleotide metabolism.The 10 CRC-related strains possess significantly different metabolites and metabolic pathways. Specific metabolites and corresponding metabolic pathways might explain microbial CRC-promoting or -suppressing mechanisms.
Keywords: colorectal cancer, Gut Microbiota, metabolite, metabolic pathway, amino acid metabolism
Received: 09 Apr 2025; Accepted: 24 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Mei, Huang, Chen and Kong. 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:
Yifan Chen, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200070, Shanghai Municipality, China
Cheng Kong, Shanghai Cancer Center, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200032, Shanghai Municipality, China
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