Colon cancer is caused by the conjunction of intestinal bacterial stress, and cellular stress explain researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), thus revealing the role of the intestinal microbiota, which fuels tumor growth. It is therefore not cellular stress that leads to tumor growth, but this combination of cellular stress and microbiota bacteria.
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Bacteria and cellular stress act in concert: this work was initially carried out on the mouse model of colon cancer. Thus, in animals that were germ-free and therefore deprived of gut microbiota, but in which the activated transcription factor ATF6 regulated stress in the intestinal mucosa (intestinal epithelium), no change was observed. But as soon as microbiota, that is to say all the microorganisms of the intestine, are transplanted into these germ-free animals, tumors develop in the colon. This suggests the indispensable participation of the intestinal microbiota in the development of colon cancer.
The transcription factor ATF6 is a factor that regulates stress in cells and the intensity and duration of activation increase with disease. Thus, when researchers examine the levels of ATF6 transcription factor through the analysis of data from 541 colon cancer patients, in cases where the level of ATF6 transcription factor is significantly increased, the recurrence rate after surgery increases, up to 10%. The ATF6 protein thus appears throughout this study as a diagnostic marker for an increased risk of colon cancer and could even indicate the start of treatment at an early stage.
It should be noted that "microbial therapy" can also be envisaged to modify the composition of the bacterial flora.