Department of Radiation Oncology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, 116021, Liaoning, China.
Department of Microecology, School of Basic Medical Science, Dalian Medical University, No. 9, West Segment of South Lvshun Road, Lvshunkou District, Dalian, 116044, China.
Braz J Microbiol. 2021 Dec;52(4):1873-1880. doi: 10.1007/s42770-021-00594-0. Epub 2021 Sep 7.
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), an epithelial-originated malignant tumor, has a special geographic distribution. However, the etiology of NPC has not been examined in detail. Increasing pieces of evidence indicate that the microbiome may contribute to head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Until now, there is limited information on the role of the microbiome in NPC, so we assessed variations in the nasopharynx microbiota of patients with NPC relative to the bacterial in health controls.
Nasopharynx lavage fluid (NLF) samples were collected from 11 NPC patients and 5 volunteer controls. 16S rRNA sequencing and comparative analyses of NLF bacterial microbiome between NPC patients and controls were performed.
NLF microbial alpha-diversity by the Shannon index and Simpson index decreased significantly in the NPC patients when compared with the controls. Beta-diversity by principal component analysis exhibited separated patterns of the NPC patients and healthy controls. Thirty-one genera differed significantly between the NPC patient group and healthy control group. The abundance of 17 bacteria was correlated with primary tumor size and invaded lymph node size. Functional gene prediction analysis showed that 9 gene function pathways were significantly different between the two groups.
Our results demonstrated that the nasopharynx microbiota in NPC patients was different from that of the healthy controls, suggesting that the nasopharynx microenvironment might be related to NPC.
鼻咽癌（NPC）是一种上皮起源的恶性肿瘤，具有特殊的地理分布。然而，NPC 的病因尚未详细研究。越来越多的证据表明，微生物组可能与头颈部鳞状细胞癌有关。到目前为止，关于微生物组在 NPC 中的作用的信息有限，因此我们评估了 NPC 患者与健康对照者鼻咽部微生物群的差异。
收集 11 例 NPC 患者和 5 名志愿者对照者的鼻咽冲洗液（NLF）样本。对 NPC 患者和对照组 NLF 细菌微生物组进行 16S rRNA 测序和比较分析。
与对照组相比，NPC 患者的 NLF 微生物α多样性（Shannon 指数和 Simpson 指数）显著降低。主成分分析的β多样性显示 NPC 患者和健康对照组的分离模式。31 个属在 NPC 患者组和健康对照组之间有显著差异。17 种细菌的丰度与原发肿瘤大小和侵袭性淋巴结大小相关。功能基因预测分析表明，两组间有 9 条基因功能途径存在显著差异。
我们的研究结果表明，NPC 患者的鼻咽微生物群与健康对照组不同，提示鼻咽微环境可能与 NPC 有关。
