Zhou Huifen, Liao Jipei, Leng Qixin, Chinthalapally Molangur, Dhilipkannah Pushpa, Jiang Feng
Department of Pathology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, 10 South Pine Street, MSTF 7th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.
Environmental Science and Technology, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
Microorganisms. 2023 Feb 25;11(3):582. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms11030582.
Lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer deaths and early diagnosis can significantly improve outcomes. Pathogenic bacteria have been shown to play a role in tumorigenesis and its analysis provides a new approach for cancer diagnosis. To evaluate the potential of bacteria as plasma biomarkers for early lung cancer detection, we analyzed eight lung-cancer-related bacterial genera in 58 lung cancer patients and 58 controls using ddPCR. Our results showed that five genera had higher DNA abundance in lung tumor tissues compared with normal tissues. Three of these genera (, , and ) displayed consistent changes in plasma, with higher DNA abundance in lung cancer patients compared with controls. When used as a panel, these three bacterial genera had a sensitivity of 75% and specificity of 78% for lung cancer detection, regardless of stage or histology. The performance of this biomarker panel was confirmed in an independent cohort of 93 lung cancer cases and 93 controls. Thus, circulating bacterial DNA has the potential to be used as plasma biomarkers for early lung cancer detection.
肺癌是癌症死亡的主要原因，早期诊断可显著改善治疗结果。已证明致病细菌在肿瘤发生中起作用，对其进行分析为癌症诊断提供了一种新方法。为了评估细菌作为早期肺癌检测血浆生物标志物的潜力，我们使用数字滴液聚合酶链反应（ddPCR）分析了58例肺癌患者和58例对照中8个与肺癌相关的细菌属。我们的结果表明，与正常组织相比，5个属在肺肿瘤组织中的DNA丰度更高。其中3个属（、和）在血浆中表现出一致的变化，肺癌患者的DNA丰度高于对照组。当作为一个组合使用时，这3个细菌属对肺癌检测的敏感性为75%，特异性为78%，与分期或组织学无关。该生物标志物组合的性能在一个由93例肺癌病例和93例对照组成的独立队列中得到了证实。因此，循环细菌DNA有潜力用作早期肺癌检测的血浆生物标志物。
