Probiotics modify human intestinal mucosa-associated microbiota in patients with colorectal cancerOriginal paper
Karen Pendergrass is a microbiome researcher specializing in microbiome-targeted interventions (MBTIs). She systematically analyzes scientific literature to identify microbial patterns, develop hypotheses, and validate interventions. As the founder of the Microbiome Signatures Database, she bridges microbiome research with clinical practice. In 2012, based on her own investigative research, she became the first documented case of FMT for Celiac Disease, four years before the first published case study.
Read MoreWhat was studied?
Studies using animal models have demonstrated that probiotics may have a beneficial role in the prevention of colorectal cancer (CRC); however, the underlying mechanism of the beneficial effects of interventional probiotic treatment on gut microbiota has remained elusive. In the present study, pyrosequencing of the V3 region of the 16S rRNA genes was conducted in order to determine the extent to which probiotics alter the microbiota. The observations of the present study indicated that the microbial structure of cancerous tissue differed significantly from that of healthy individuals and that the CRC microbiota exhibited lower diversity. It was indicated that interventional treatment with probiotics increased the density and diversity of mucosal microbes, and altered the mucosa‑associated microbiota. Pyrosequencing demonstrated that probiotics significantly reduced (5‑fold) the abundance of a bacterial taxon assigned to the genus Fusobacterium, which had been previously suggested to be a contributing factor to increase tumorigenesis. Accordingly, interventional probiotic therapy is suggested to be able to improve the composition of the mucosal microbial flora and significantly reduce the abundance of mucosa-associated pathogens in patients with CRC.