-
Frontiers in Microbiology 2023Recent observational and small-sample case-control studies have shown a relationship between gut microbiota composition and prostatic cancer (PCa). Nevertheless, the...
AIM
Recent observational and small-sample case-control studies have shown a relationship between gut microbiota composition and prostatic cancer (PCa). Nevertheless, the causal association between gut microbiota and PCa is still unclear. Herein, we used the Mendelian randomization (MR) method to explore the potential causal relationship between gut microbiota and PCa.
METHODS
In this two-sample MR study, data were extracted from the summary statistics of gut microbiota from the largest available genome-wide association study meta-analysis conducted by the MiBioGen consortium ( = 14,306) and the Dutch Microbiome Project ( = 8,208). Summary statistics for PCa were obtained from the FinnGen consortium release data ( = 95,213). Inverse variance weighted (IVW), MR-Egger, strength test (F), and MR-PRESSO were used to examine the potential causal association between gut microbiota and PCa. Cochran's Q statistics were used to quantify the heterogeneity of instrumental variables.
RESULTS
IVW estimates suggested that the relative abundance of (odds ratio [OR] = 0.7926, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.6655-0.9440) and (OR = 0.9023, 95% CI: 0.8262-0.9853) were negatively associated with the odds of PCa, while that of (OR = 1.1629, 95% CI: 1.0110-1.3376) was positively associated with the odds of PCa. In addition, we explored these relationships among patients without other cancers and similarly found that the relative abundance of , and were linked to PCa (all < 0.05).
CONCLUSION
Gut microbiota potentially influenced the occurrence of PCa. Our findings may provide some new ideas for researching the methods of PCa prevention. In addition, further studies are needed to explore the causal association and specific underlying mechanisms between gut microbiota and PCa.
PubMed: 38029073
DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1250369 -
Microbiome Feb 2024Chondroitin sulfate (CS) has widely been used as a symptomatic slow-acting drug or a dietary supplement for the treatment and prevention of osteoarthritis. However, CS...
Chondroitin sulfate (CS) has widely been used as a symptomatic slow-acting drug or a dietary supplement for the treatment and prevention of osteoarthritis. However, CS could not be absorbed after oral intake due to its polyanionic nature and large molecular weight. Gut microbiota has recently been proposed to play a pivotal role in the metabolism of drugs and nutrients. Nonetheless, how CS is degraded by the human gut microbiota has not been fully characterized. In the present study, we demonstrated that each human gut microbiota was characterized with a unique capability for CS degradation. Degradation and fermentation of CS by the human gut microbiota produced significant amounts of unsaturated CS oligosaccharides (CSOSs) and short-chain fatty acids. To uncover which microbes were responsible for CS degradation, we isolated a total of 586 bacterial strains with a potential CS-degrading capability from 23 human fecal samples. Bacteroides salyersiae was a potent species for CS degradation in the human gut microbiota and produced the highest amount of CSOSs as compared to other well-recognized CS-degraders, including Bacteroides finegoldii, Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, Bacteroides xylanisolvens, and Bacteroides ovatus. Genomic analysis suggested that B. salyersiae was armed with multiple carbohydrate-active enzymes that could potentially degrade CS into CSOSs. By using a spent medium assay, we further demonstrated that the unsaturated tetrasaccharide (udp4) produced by the primary degrader B. salyersiae could serve as a "public goods" molecule for the growth of Bacteroides stercoris, a secondary CS-degrader that was proficient at fermenting CSOSs but not CS. Taken together, our study provides insights into the metabolism of CS by the human gut microbiota, which has promising implications for the development of medical and nutritional therapies for osteoarthritis. Video Abstract.
Topics: Humans; Chondroitin Sulfates; Gastrointestinal Microbiome; Oligosaccharides; Osteoarthritis; Bacteroides
PubMed: 38419055
DOI: 10.1186/s40168-024-01768-2