Increase in <i>Akkermansiaceae</i> in Gut Microbiota of Prostate Cancer-Bearing Mice

• Main Authors: Pin-Yu Huang, Yu-Chih Yang, Chun-I Wang, Pei-Wen Hsiao, Hsin-I Chiang, Ting-Wen Chen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-09-01
• Series: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
• Subjects: gut–cancer axes; 16S rRNA; time-series; amplicon sequencing; microbiota comparison; hormone
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/17/9626
• ISSN: 1661-6596; 1422-0067

Gut microbiota are reported to be associated with many diseases, including cancers. Several bacterial taxa have been shown to be associated with cancer development or response to treatment. However, longitudinal microbiota alterations during the development of cancers are relatively unexplored. To better understand how microbiota changes, we profiled the gut microbiota composition from prostate cancer-bearing mice and control mice at five different time points. Distinct gut microbiota differences were found between cancer-bearing mice and control mice. <i>Akkermansiaceae</i> was found to be significantly higher in the first three weeks in cancer-bearing mice, which implies its role in the early stage of cancer colonization. We also found that <i>Bifidobacteriaceae</i> and <i>Enterococcaceae</i> were more abundant in the second and last sampling week, respectively. The increments of <i>Akkermansiaceae</i>, <i>Bifidobacteriaceae</i> and <i>Enterococcaceae</i> were previously found to be associated with responses to immunotherapy, which suggests links between these bacteria families and cancers. Additionally, our function analysis showed that the bacterial taxa carrying steroid biosynthesis and butirosin and neomycin biosynthesis were increased, whereas those carrying naphthalene degradation decreased in cancer-bearing mice. Our work identified the bacteria taxa altered during prostate cancer progression and provided a resource of longitudinal microbiota profiles during cancer development in a mouse model.