Abstract
Important evidence indicates that the microbiota plays a key role in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Here, paired saliva and brush specimens were obtained from 276 participants undergoing upper gastrointestinal endoscopic examination before or during screening for upper gastrointestinal (UGI) cancer. The esophageal microbiota was investigated by 16S rRNA gene profiling and next-generation sequencing. We observed that as the disease progressed, the α diversity in the saliva and cell brush samples decreased. Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) results showed that in both the saliva and cell brush specimens, Granulicatella, Rothia, Streptococcus, Gemella, Leptotrichia and Schaalia were common biomarkers in patients with low-grade dysplasia, Lactobacillus was a common biomarker in patients with high-grade dysplasia, and Bosea, Solobacterium, Gemella, and Peptostreptococcus were common biomarkers in patients with esophageal cancer. The top 3 genera in the saliva and cell brush specimens had areas under the curve (AUCs) of 87.16 and 89.13%, respectively, to distinguish ESCC patients from normal people. The PICRUSt2 results identified in brush samples that patients with ESCC had decreased nitrate reductase functions. Our results suggest that future studies can focus on the function of the characteristic bacteria in ESCC.
Highlights
IntroductionNinety percent of the 456,000 esophageal cancer cases reported each year (Abnet et al, 2018) are caused by esophageal squamous cell neoplasia (ESCN)
Esophageal cancer is the sixth deadliest cancer in the world
The 276 patients included in the statistical analysis were divided into 4 groups according to pathology: the normal group (82 patients), the low-grade dysplasia (LGD) group (60 patients), the high-grade dysplasia (HGD) group (64 patients) and the SCC group (70 patients)
Summary
Ninety percent of the 456,000 esophageal cancer cases reported each year (Abnet et al, 2018) are caused by esophageal squamous cell neoplasia (ESCN). China accounts for approximately half of all esophageal squamous cell cancer (ESCC) cases worldwide (Liu et al, 2019) due to its high incidence rate. Diagnosis is key to improving the prognosis of esophageal cancer (Codipilly et al, 2018). Early ESCN is often difficult to detect, with the gold standard for the diagnosis of early ESCN being pathological biopsy obtained by gastroendoscopy (Di Pietro et al, 2018). China has made improvements in esophageal cancer screening in recent years (Chen et al, 2020), endoscopic examination is relatively expensive, painful and invasive, and not everyone accepts screening. It is necessary to develop a new noninvasive screening tool to detect ESCC
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