Abstract
The relationship between viruses (dominated by bacteriophages or phages) and lower gastrointestinal (GI) tract diseases has been investigated, whereas the relationship between gut bacteriophages and upper GI tract diseases, such as esophageal diseases, which mainly include Barrett’s esophagus (BE) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC), remains poorly described. This study aimed to reveal the gut bacteriophage community and their behavior in the progression of esophageal diseases. In total, we analyzed the gut phage community of sixteen samples from patients with esophageal diseases (six BE patients and four EAC patients) as well as six healthy controls. Differences were found in the community composition of abundant and rare bacteriophages among three groups. In addition, the auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) related to bacterial exotoxin and virulence factors such as lipopolysaccharides (LPS) biosynthesis proteins were found to be more abundant in the genome of rare phages from BE and EAC samples compared to the controls. These results suggest that the community composition of gut phages and functional traits encoded by them were different in two stages of esophageal diseases. However, the findings from this study need to be validated with larger sample sizes in the future.
Highlights
Barrett’s esophagus (BE) is the only known precursor for the development of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) with a five-year survival rate of less than 20%
The relative abundance of Herelleviridae was lower than 1% in three groups, the relative abundance of Myoviridae (1.12–41.97% in CT, 7.19–18.61% in BE, 1.37–34.36% in EAC), Podoviridae (2.03–31.68% in CT, 5.72–18.44% in BE, 3.72–11.01% in EAC) and Siphoviridae
The distinct gut phage community structure was identified in two different stages of esophageal diseases, and these differences were mainly found in abundant and rare bacteriophages
Summary
Barrett’s esophagus (BE) is the only known precursor for the development of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) with a five-year survival rate of less than 20%. The incidence of these diseases is on the rise globally [1,2]. The human gut is home to trillions of microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa. These microorganisms and their human host maintain a symbiotic relationship, in which the host provides a nutrient-rich habitat, and the microbiota supplies key metabolic capabilities, protects against pathogen invasion, and trains the immune system [5].
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