Dysbiosis of the Gut Microbiome Is Associated With Histopathology of Lung Cancer

Xiong Qin; Ling Bi; Wenxiao Yang; Yiyun He; Yifeng Gu; Yong Yang; Yabin Gong; Yichao Wang; Xiaoxia Yan; Ling Xu; Haibo Xiao; Lijing Jiao

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2022.918823

Dysbiosis of the Gut Microbiome Is Associated With Histopathology of Lung Cancer

Front Microbiol. 2022 Jun 14:13:918823. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.918823. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Xiong Qin¹, Ling Bi², Wenxiao Yang², Yiyun He², Yifeng Gu², Yong Yang¹, Yabin Gong², Yichao Wang², Xiaoxia Yan¹, Ling Xu², Haibo Xiao³, Lijing Jiao^{2

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
² Department of Oncology, Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
³ Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Xinhua Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
⁴ Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Institute of Clinical Immunology, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Lung cancer is a malignancy with high incidence and mortality worldwide. Previous studies have shown that the gut microbiome plays an important role in the development and progression of metabolic cancers. However, data on the characteristics of the gut microbiome with different histopathology types of lung cancer remain scant. We collected stool samples from 28 healthy people (HP) and 61 lung cancer patients. The lung cancer patients were classified into three types according to their histopathology: Atypical Adenomatous Hyperplasia/Adenocarcinoma in situ (AAH/AIS), Minimally Invasive Adenocarcinoma (MIA), and Invasive Adenocarcinoma (IA). In addition, we employed 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing to analyze the characteristics of the gut microbiome in these patients. Our analysis revealed that the categorized cancer patients had unique intestinal flora characteristics, and had lower density and flora diversity compared to healthy people. Besides, the structure of the flora families and genera was more complex, and each group presented specific pathogenic microbiota. The patients in the AAH/AIS group and HP group had relatively similar flora structure compared with the IA and MIA groups. In addition, we identified several flora markers that showed significant changes with the development of lung cancer. Lung cancer gut microbiota showed a decrease in short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) producing and anti-inflammatory bacteria compared to healthy people, while some pathogenic bacteria such as proinflammatory or tumor-promoting bacteria were more abundant in lung cancer patients. On the other hand, the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Clusters of Orthologous Group (COG) annotation demonstrated suppression of some dominant metabolism-related pathways in lung cancer. These findings provide new biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognostic assessment of lung cancer and lay the basis for novel targeted therapeutic strategies for the prevention and treatment of lung cancer.

Clinical trial registration: [www.ClinicalTrials.gov], identifier [NCT03244605].

Keywords: 16S rRNA sequencing; biomarkers; gut microbiome; histopathology; lung cancer.

Associated data

ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT03244605