Abstract
Gut microbiota have been implicated in the development of many human diseases, including both digestive diseases and non-digestive diseases. In this study, we investigated whether the gut bacteria differed in cervical cancer (CCa) patients compared with healthy controls by 16S rRNA sequencing analysis. Subjects including eight CCa and five healthy controls were included. Microbiota profiles in fecal DNA were characterized by PCR amplification of the 16S rRNA V4 variable region and deep sequencing using the Illumina HiSeq platform. The CCa-associated gut microbiota had an increasing trend in alpha diversity, although statistical significance was not reached. Inter-group variability in community structure by beta diversity analysis showed a clear separation between cancer patients and healthy controls. Gut microbiota profiles were different between patients and controls; namely, the proportions of Proteobacteria phylum was notably higher in patients with CCa (ρ = 0.012). Seven genera differentiated significantly in relative abundance between CCa and controls (all ρ < 0.05), including Escherichia–Shigella, Roseburia, Pseudomonas, Lachnoclostridium, Lachnospiraceae_UCG-004, Dorea and Succinivibrio. The characteristic microbiome in CCa patients was also identified by linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe). The phylum Proteobacteria, and the genus Parabacteroides, Escherichia_Shigells and Roseburia may provide novel potential biomarkers for CCa. Taken together, this is the first study on gut microbiota in patients with CCa, and demonstrated the significantly altered diversity and composition.
Highlights
Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer-related deaths in women worldwide, and the most common gynecological neoplasia in developing countries
Through 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we identified specific microbial signatures in patients with cervical cancer and sought to elucidate potential biomarkers or underlying mechanism how the microbiota may influence the pathogenesis of cervical cancer
Our results showed that the fecal microbiota of cervical cancer (CCa) patients had overall higher alpha diversity than those of the healthy controls, no significant difference was observed by t-test (Fig. 1a–e)
Summary
Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer-related deaths in women worldwide, and the most common gynecological neoplasia in developing countries. Current literature reports that globally, there are approximately 500,000 new cases of cervical cancer, and more than 270,000 deaths annually (Basu et al 2017). The genetic content of these microbial communities is approximately 100 times greater than seen in human genes (Human microbiome project consortium 2012). They co-exist with their hosts as a super-organism in a mutualistic manner and play fundamental roles in human health and disease. Emerging evidence shows that the intestinal microbiota regulates the host’s metabolism and stimulates and renews epithelial cells. The intestinal microbiota will influence the development and maturation of the nervous and immune systems (Vrieze et al 2013; Ursell et al 2014; Dinan and Cryan 2017; Partida-Rodríguez et al 2017). The structure of the gut microbial community changes constantly according to various external variables such as age, sex, stress, probiotic or antibiotic usage and genetic background
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