Cell Rep: scientists have identified two key prebiotics that may be able to fight cancer progression by activating anti-tumor immunity

February 15, 2020 / bioun / -- recently, a research report published in the international journal Cell reports found that two prebiotics, mucin and inulin, can slow down melanoma in mice by enhancing the immune system against cancer Compared with probiotics (living bacteria), prebiotics are the food of bacteria, which can stimulate the growth of a variety of beneficial bacteria In this study, researchers found that intestinal microorganisms play a very important role in reshaping the immune response of the body to cancer, targeting the intestinal microbiome or helping to enhance the efficiency of cancer immunotherapy Source: sagaciousnewsnetwork.com this study opens up a new way to address the important clinical needs of melanoma, emphasizing the potential impact of prebiotics on tumor growth control and treatment tolerance; researcher ze'ev According to Dr Ronai, early research results show that prebiotics can limit tumor growth, but the researchers are not clear about the molecular mechanism involved In this study, we found for the first time that prebiotics can enhance the anti-tumor effect Immunity to limit the growth of cancer, related research results may help researchers in-depth understanding whether prebiotics can be used to treat cancer and other diseases Prebiotics can be used as a powerful tool to reconstruct intestinal microbiome and identify bacteria that can promote anti-cancer immunity Researchers' research findings may help them to introduce the idea of using prebiotics into cancer therapy; immunotherapy, i.e targeted therapies such as MEK inhibitors, can help to treat melanoma Patients, but not every patient will benefit Some patients will respond to the treatment, while others will not; in addition, many patients will have a certain tolerance for the treatment that needs to be combined with alternative drugs; using prebiotics to control the microbiome may be able to assist patients with the current treatment In this study, the researchers also tried to identify special prebiotics that can promote the growth of beneficial bacteria and activate anti-tumor immunity Based on the previous results in the laboratory, the researchers targeted a kind of protein called mucin and inulin, which is part of the mucus of intestines and other tissues, while inulin is a kind of fiber found in plants such as asparagus and onion The researchers then conducted a series of studies, namely, feeding healthy mice with mucin or inulin in water and food respectively, and then transplanting melanoma cells or colon cancer cells to determine the therapeutic effect of these two prebiotics The researchers found that: 1) the growth of melanoma in mice treated with mucin or inulin slowed down, while that in mice treated with inulin alone slowed down; 2) melanoma treated with any prebiotic The level of immune cells in mice will increase and infiltrate into tumor tissue, which suggests that prebiotics may enhance the ability of immune system to attack cancer; 3) the microbial community in mice receiving prebiotics will change, and more importantly, mucin and inulin can produce different special bacteria Population, although these two prebiotics can induce antitumor immunity in mice, this suggests that the different activity modes mediated by these two prebiotics are conducive to stimulate the emergence of antitumor immunity; 4) MEK inhibitor drugs can usually treat melanoma with NARS mutation, but tumors often have tolerance to the treatment of MEK inhibitor, and accept inulin and carry Na The mice with RS mutant melanoma showed a slow tolerance to MEK inhibitor therapy; 5) the mice with BRAF mutant melanoma had partial response to immunocheckpoint therapy, but the response to prebiotics was the same as that of checkpoint therapy Finally, researcher Ronai said that the results of this study may help us understand the molecular mechanism of specific prebiotics affecting tumor growth, and the relevant research results will be expected to be applied to human body Later researchers need to conduct more in-depth research in more complex animal models to see whether the two prebiotics can effectively help enhance the anti-tumor effect of human body Immunity, so as to effectively resist the occurrence and progress of cancer Original source: Yan Li, Lisa elm é n, Igor segota, et al Prefabricated induced anti tumor immunity attendants tumor growth, cell reports (2020) Doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.01.035