Nat Commun: The gut microbiome affects the immune response around liver cancer

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths among the world.
liver inflammation and cirrhosis are key to HCC incidence, and common risk factors include viral hepatitis, alcoholic liver disease and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
the global prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes, liver cirrhosis caused by non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD-irrhosis) is the most common liver disease in the world, and NAFLD-related HCC (NAFLD-HCC) is expected to be the main cause of HCC.
, the gut microbiome is reported to regulate the immune response of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Recently, researchers published a paper in the journal Nature Communications, reporting on the use of metagenomics and metabolomic studies to characterize the gut microbiome of patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), whether or not HCC is associated, and to assess its effects on the external immune response in in-body models.
found that the microbiome in patients with NAFLD-cirrhosis is characterized by disorders that change in its composition and function as HCC develops.
function of the microbiome in NAFLD-HCC supports the production of short-chain fatty acids, as confirmed by metabolomic studies.
in-body studies have shown that bacterial extracts from the NAFLD-HCC microbiome, rather than from the control group, cause t-cell immunosuppressive espresso, characterized by the expansion of regulatory T-cells and the attenuation of CD8-T cells.
, the study showed that the gut microbiome in NAFLD-HCC has unique microbiome/metabolic group characteristics and is able to regulate the external immune response.