Clear Links Found Between Inflammation, Bacterial Communities and Cancer

[xchrom]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/08/120816141527.htm

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Escherichia coli bacteria. (Credit: Janice Haney Carr)

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For this reason, it should come as no surprise that a significant disturbance in the human body can profoundly alter the makeup of otherwise stable microbial communities co-existing within it and that changes in the internal ecology known as the human microbiome can result in unexpected and drastic consequences for human health.

A report published in the August 16 online edition of the journal Science gives evidence for such a chain reaction. It has long been known that gut inflammation is a risk factor for cancer. The new study suggests that this may be in part because inflammation disturbs gut ecosystems leading to conditions that allow pathogens to invade the gut. These pathogens may damage host cells increasing the risk of the development of colorectal cancer.

The authors of the study were Janelle C. Arthur, Ernesto Perez-Chanona, Marcus Mühlbauer, Sarah Tomkovich, Joshua M. Uronis, Ting-Jia Fan, Christian Jobin, Arlin B. Rogers, Jonathan J. Hansen, and Temitope O. Keku from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Barry J. Campbell and Jonathan M. Rhodes from the University of Liverpool; Turki Abujamel and Alain Stintzi from the University of Ottawa; Belgin Dogan and Kenneth W. Simpson from Cornell University; and Anthony A. Fodor from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

In a series of experiments conducted with mice prone to intestinal inflammation, the researchers found that inflammation itself causes significant simplification in diverse communities of gut microbes and allows new bacterial populations to establish major footholds. Among the bacterial taxa invading the disturbed intestinal ecosystem, the research team found a greatly increased presence of E. coli and related bacteria. By putting E. coli bacteria into mice that were raised under sterile conditions, the team also found that the presence of E. coli promoted tumor formation. When regions of the E. coli genome known to be involved in DNA damage were removed, the ability of the E. coli to cause tumors was substantially decreased.

[unc70]

1. Lots of major research being done here

UNC Chapel Hill is doing a lot of key research. So are Duke and Wake Forest/Bowman Gray.

[xchrom]

2. it's the Tech/Bio-Med hotspot.

it WOULD have been -- and maybe will be san jose, san francisco, berkeley -- but washington took to damn long coming to it's senses re: stem cell research. which is where the bay area is at.