J Appl Biomed 19:1-13, 2021 | DOI: 10.32725/jab.2021.005

Gut microbial dysbiosis and its association with esophageal cancer

Hafiz Muhammad Ishaq^1,2, Imran Shair Mohammad³, Kiran Sher Muhammad⁴, Huan Li⁵, Rao Zahid Abbas⁶, Zia ud Din Sindhu⁶, Shakir Ullah¹, Yang Fan⁷, Abbas Sadiq⁸, Muhammad Asif Raza², Riaz Hussain⁹, Hafiz Muhammad Arshad¹⁰, Iahtasham Khan¹¹, Muhammad Umair Waqas², Aziz Ul-Rahman², Riffat Yasin², Atif Rehman², Rana Waseem Akhtar², Jiru Xu^1,*

¹ University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Department of Clinical Sciences, Section of Epidemiology and public Health, Lahore Sub-campus Jhang, Pakistan

² Muhammad Nawaz Shareef University of Agriculture Multan, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Multan, Pakistan

³ Sun Yat-sen University, University Town, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guangzhou 510006, China

⁴ University of Agriculture, Department of Zoology Wild-life and Fisheries, Faisalabad, Pakistan

⁵ Xi'an Mental Health Centre, Xi'an, China

⁶ University of Agriculture Faisalabad-38040, Department of Parasitology, Faisalabad, Pakistan

⁷ Xinxiang Medical University, School of Basic Medical Science, Department of Microbiology, Xinxiang, China

⁸ Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Lahore, Department of Pathology, Lahore, Pakistan

⁹ Islamia University of Bahawalpur-63100, Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Department of Pathology, Bahawalpur, Pakistan

Due to its aggressive nature and low survival rate, esophageal cancer is one of the deadliest cancer. While the intestinal microbiome significantly influences human health and disease. This research aimed to investigate and characterize the relative abundance of intestinal bacterial composition in esophageal cancer patients. The fecal samples were collected from esophageal cancer patients (n = 15) and healthy volunteers (n = 10). The PCR-DGGE was carried out by focusing on the V3 region of the 16S rRNA gene, and qPCR was performed for Bacteroides vulgatus, Escherichia coli, Bifidobacterium, Clostridium leptum and Lactobacillus. High-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene targeting the V3+V4 region was performed on 20 randomly selected samples. PCR-DGGE and High-throughput diversity results showed a significant alteration of gut bacterial composition between the experimental and control groups, which indicates the gut microbial dysbiosis in esophageal cancer patients. At the phylum level, there was significant enrichment of Bacteroidetes, while a non-significant decrease of Firmicutes in the experimental group. At family statistics, a significantly higher level of Bacteroidaceae and Enterobacteriaceae, while a significantly lower abundance of Prevotellaceae and Veillonellaceae were observed. There was a significantly high prevalence of genera Bacteroides, Escherichia-Shigella, while a significantly lower abundance of Prevotella_9 and Dialister in the experimental group as compared to the control group. Furthermore, the species analysis also showed significantly raised level of Bacteroides vulgatus and Escherichia coli in the experimental group. These findings revealed a significant gut microbial dysbiosis in esophageal cancer patients. So, the current study can be used for the understanding of esophageal cancer treatment, disease pathway, mechanism, and probiotic development.

Keywords: DGGE; Esophageal cancer; High-throughput sequencing; Intestinal dysbiosis; Microbiome

Grants and funding:

This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81730056).

Conflicts of interest:

All the authors declare no conflict of interests.

Received: June 8, 2020; Revised: January 17, 2021; Accepted: January 22, 2021; Prepublished online: February 3, 2021; Published: March 3, 2021  Show citation