Researchers from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC)
have discovered that specific types of bacteria that live in the gut are
major contributors to lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells that
are part of the human immune system.
Researchers from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have
discovered that specific types of bacteria that live in the gut are
major contributors to lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells.
Published online ahead of press today in the journal Cancer
Research, the study was led by Robert Schiestl, member of the Jonsson
Cancer Center and professor of pathology and laboratory medicine,
environmental health sciences, and radiation oncology.
In rodents, intestinal bacteria influence obesity, intestinal
inflammation and certain types of epithelial cancers. (Epithelial
cancers affect the coverings of the stomach, liver or colon.) However,
little is known about the identity of the bacterial species that promote
the growth of, or protect the body from, cancer — or about their effect
on lymphoma.
Up to 1,000 different species of bacteria (intestinal microbiota)
live in the human gut. Intestinal microbiota number 100 trillion cells;
over 90 percent of the cells in the body are bacteria. The composition
of each person's microbiome — the body's bacterial make-up — is very
different, due to the types of bacteria people ingest early in their
lives, as well as the effects of diet and lifestyle.
Schiestl's group wanted to determine whether differences in
peoples' microbiomes affect their risk for lymphoma, and whether
changing the bacteria can reduce this risk. They studied mice with
ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T), a genetic disease that in humans and mice
is associated with a high rate of B-cell lymphoma. They discovered that,
of mice with A-T, those with certain microbial species lived much
longer than those with other bacteria before developing lymphoma, and
had less of the gene damage (genotoxicity) that causes lymphoma.
"This study is the first to show a relationship between intestinal
microbiota and the onset of lymphoma," Schiestl said. "Given that
intestinal microbiota is a potentially modifiable trait, these results
hold considerable promise for intervention of B-cell lymphoma and other
diseases."
The scientists also were able to create a detailed catalog of
bacteria types with promoting or protective effects on genotoxicity and
lymphoma, which could be used in the future to create combined therapies
that kill the bacteria that promote cancer (as antibiotics do) and
increase the presence of the bacteria that protect from cancer (as
probiotics do).
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