Abstract
The composition and function of the microbiome is emerging as a susceptibility factor affecting the tumor microenvironment locally and systemically. However, the high complexity and low inter-individual overlap of intestinal microbial composition are formidable barriers to identifying microbial taxa contributing to disease susceptibility. These difficulties might be overcome by an ecologic analytic strategy to identify modules of interacting bacteria (rather than individual bacteria) as quantitative reproducible features of microbial composition in normal and IBD mucosa. Using co-occurrence and network analysis of the intestinal mucosal bacterial microbiome, we have uncovered 5 microbial modules, each detectable in all individuals, and two modules were associated with colorectal susceptibility states such as inflammatory bowel disease. Network analysis of mucosal metabolites and proteins indicates that each microbial module is associated with a distinct functional mucosal community, which can be directly visualized forming a microgeographic distribution at the mucosal surface. Systemic products produced by certain mucosal functional communities also induce remote genotoxicity associated with lymphoma formation in susceptible individuals. Microbial modules thus provide an integrative view of microbial ecology relevant to cancer, and permit quantitative and reproducible microbial monitoring by minimally-invasive sampling of the readily accessible rectal mucosa.
Citation Format: Jonathan Braun. Defining and monitoring microbial networks. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; 2012 Oct 16-19; Anaheim, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Prev Res 2012;5(11 Suppl):Abstract nr ED04-01.
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