Association between the relative abundance of gastric microbiota and the risk of gastric cancer: a case-control study

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 13589 - 11
• Main Authors: Gunathilake, Madhawa Neranjan, Lee, Jeonghee, Choi, Il Ju, Kim, Young-Il, Ahn, Yongju, Park, Chanhyeok, Kim, Jeongseon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 19.09.2019; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 45; 45/23; 631/67/2324; 692/4028/67/1504/1829; Abundance; Adult; Bacteria - classification; Bacteria - genetics; Bacteria - isolation & purification; Biopsy; Case-Control Studies; DNA, Bacterial - genetics; DNA, Ribosomal - genetics; Female; Gastric cancer; Gastrointestinal Microbiome; Helicobacter pylori; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Intestinal microflora; Lactococcus lactis; Male; Microbiomes; Microbiota; Middle Aged; multidisciplinary; Phylogeny; Population studies; Prevotella copri; Propionibacterium acnes; Regression Analysis; Relative abundance; Risk factors; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics; rRNA 16S; Science; Sequence Analysis, DNA - methods; Stomach Neoplasms - epidemiology
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-50054-x

The human gut hosts a diverse community of bacteria referred to as the gut microbiome. We investigated the association between the relative abundance of gastric microbiota and gastric cancer (GC) risk in a Korean population. The study participants included 268 GC patients and 288 controls. DNA was extracted from gastric biopsies, and 16S rRNA gene analysis was performed. Unconditional logistic regression models were used to observe the associations. Of the participants, those who had the highest level (highest tertile) of relative Helicobacter pylori and Propionibacterium acnes abundances showed a significantly higher risk for GC after adjusting for potential confounding variables (odds ratio (OR) = 1.86, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.17–2.97, p for trend = 0.017 and OR = 4.77, 95% CI = 2.94–7.74, p for trend <0.001, respectively). Subjects who carried Prevotella copri had a significantly higher risk of GC than noncarriers (OR = 2.54, 95% CI = 1.42–4.55, p for trend = 0.002). There was a lower risk of GC in subjects carrying Lactococcus lactis than in noncarriers (OR = 0.21, 95% CI = 0.10–0.44, p for trend <0.001). H. pylori, P. acnes and P. copri are strong risk factors, whereas L. lactis is a protective factor, for GC development in Koreans. Further microbiome studies are warranted to verify the findings of the current study.