Front Cell Infect Microbiol: Still not brushing your teeth well?

The relationship between bacteria and cancer has always been very delicate.

As a physiological island, the human body hosts trillions of bacteria and other microorganisms.

Scientists have discovered that with the improvement of people's living standards, all kinds of food are corroding our teeth, so it is inevitable that we have to put on dentures.

Not only that, these bacteria in the oral cavity will be silent.

Studies have found that fungi and bacteria in the oral cavity not only cause diseases such as periodontitis and dental caries, but also activate the expression of head and neck cancer-related genes.

In recent years, with the in-depth understanding of some chronic and intractable diseases caused by common bacteria in the medical field, it has been discovered that biofilms are the main reason why these bacterial diseases are difficult to cure.

Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus are very common in the oral cavity.

Therefore, the researchers speculated that it might be possible to use metabolites from the bacterial biofilms of Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus to stimulate and attack cells in order to explore the potential connection between bacteria and cancer.

Cell cycle distribution index

In further experiments, the researchers also found that biofilms, as organized growth aggregates of microorganisms, secrete metabolites that can regulate the expression of proto-oncogenes and cell cycle genes related to tumor cell growth and survival, and the gene expression It mainly focuses on the signaling pathways "EGFR/RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK and EGFR/PI3K/AKT/mTOR", which play an important role in the proliferation, differentiation and survival of tumor cells.

The expression of proto-oncogenes and cell cycle genes of soluble factors in biofilms

All in all, this research lays the foundation for metabolomics and proteomics studies of oral biofilms.

Currently, this research has been supported by the Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) and the National Council for the Development of Science and Technology (CNPq).

Original source:

María Isabel Amaya Arbeláez, et al.