Sui Yue, Wu Jianming, Chen Jianping
School of Chinese Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
Sichuan Key Medical Laboratory of New Drug Discovery and Druggability Evaluation, Luzhou Key Laboratory of Activity Screening and Druggability Evaluation for Chinese Materia Medica, School of Pharmacy, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, China.
Front Cell Dev Biol. 2021 Aug 12;9:631552. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2021.631552. eCollection 2021.
Over the past decade, the gut microbiota has received considerable attention for its interactions with the host. Microbial β-glucuronidase generated by this community has hence aroused concern for its biotransformation activity to a wide range of exogenous (foreign) and endogenous compounds. Lately, the role of gut microbial β-glucuronidase in the pathogenesis of breast cancer has been proposed for its estrogen reactivation activity. This is plausible considering that estrogen glucuronides are the primary products of estrogens' hepatic phase II metabolism and are subject to β-glucuronidase-catalyzed hydrolysis in the gut bile excretion. However, research in this field is still at its very preliminary stage. This review outlines the biology of microbial β-glucuronidase in the gastrointestinal tract and elaborates on the clues to the existence of microbial β-glucuronidase-estrogen metabolism-breast cancer axis. The research gaps in this field will be discussed and possible strategies to address these challenges are suggested.
在过去十年中，肠道微生物群因其与宿主的相互作用而备受关注。该群落产生的微生物β-葡萄糖醛酸酶因其对多种外源性（外来）和内源性化合物的生物转化活性而引发了关注。最近，肠道微生物β-葡萄糖醛酸酶因其雌激素再激活活性而被认为在乳腺癌发病机制中发挥作用。考虑到雌激素葡萄糖醛酸苷是雌激素肝脏II期代谢的主要产物，并在肠道胆汁排泄中受到β-葡萄糖醛酸酶催化的水解作用，这是有道理的。然而，该领域的研究仍处于非常初步的阶段。本综述概述了胃肠道中微生物β-葡萄糖醛酸酶的生物学特性，并阐述了微生物β-葡萄糖醛酸酶-雌激素代谢-乳腺癌轴存在的线索。将讨论该领域的研究空白，并提出应对这些挑战的可能策略。
