Microbial dysbiosis is associated with human breast cancer

Study information

Needs review

study design

case-control

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

24421902

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

10.1371/journal.pone.0083744

URI Uniform resource identifier for web resources.

Authors

Xuan C, Shamonki JM, Chung A, Dinome ML, Chung M, Sieling PA, Lee DJ

Journal

PloS one

Year

2014

Breast cancer affects one in eight women in their lifetime. Though diet, age and genetic predisposition are established risk factors, the majority of breast cancers have unknown etiology. The human microbiota refers to the collection of microbes inhabiting the human body. Imbalance in microbial communities, or microbial dysbiosis, has been implicated in various human diseases including obesity, diabetes, and colon cancer. Therefore, we investigated the potential role of microbiota in breast cancer by next-generation sequencing using breast tumor tissue and paired normal adjacent tissue from the same patient. In a qualitative survey of the breast microbiota DNA, we found that the bacterium Methylobacterium radiotolerans is relatively enriched in tumor tissue, while the bacterium Sphingomonas yanoikuyae is relatively enriched in paired normal tissue. The relative abundances of these two bacterial species were inversely correlated in paired normal breast tissue but not in tumor tissue, indicating that dysbiosis is associated with breast cancer. Furthermore, the total bacterial DNA load was reduced in tumor versus paired normal and healthy breast tissue as determined by quantitative PCR. Interestingly, bacterial DNA load correlated inversely with advanced disease, a finding that could have broad implications in diagnosis and staging of breast cancer. Lastly, we observed lower basal levels of antibacterial response gene expression in tumor versus healthy breast tissue. Taken together, these data indicate that microbial DNA is present in the breast and that bacteria or their components may influence the local immune microenvironment. Our findings suggest a previously unrecognized link between dysbiosis and breast cancer which has potential diagnostic and therapeutic implications.

Experiment 1

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Needs review

Curated date: 2021/01/10

Curator: WikiWorks

Revision editor(s): Rimsha, WikiWorks

Subjects

Location of subjects: United States of America

Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled (if applicable): Homo sapiens

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology: Breast Mamma,Mammary part of chest,Mammary region,Breast

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology: breast carcinoma breast cancer,breast cancer, NOS,breast carcinoma,cancer of breast,cancer of the breast,cancer, breast,carcinoma of breast,carcinoma of the breast,mammary carcinoma

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: normal tissue
Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: tumor tissue
Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group: 20
Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group: 20

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: 16S

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene: V4

Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance: Illumina

Statistical Analysis

Statistical test: T-Test

Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any): 0.05
MHT correction Have statistical tests be corrected for multiple hypothesis testing (MHT)?: No