Breast cancer colonization by Fusobacterium nucleatum accelerates tumor growth and metastatic progression

Lishay Parhi, Tamar Alon-Maimon, Asaf Sol, Deborah Nejman, Amjad Shhadeh, Tanya Fainsod-Levi, Olga Yajuk, Batya Isaacson, Jawad Abed, Naseem Maalouf, Aviram Nissan, Judith Sandbank, Einav Yehuda-Shnaidman, Falk Ponath, Jörg Vogel, Ofer Mandelboim, Zvi Granot, Ravid Straussman and Gilad Bachrach ()
Additional contact information
Lishay Parhi: The Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine
Tamar Alon-Maimon: The Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine
Asaf Sol: The Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine
Deborah Nejman: Weizmann Institute of Science
Amjad Shhadeh: The Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine
Tanya Fainsod-Levi: Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School
Olga Yajuk: Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School
Batya Isaacson: Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School
Jawad Abed: The Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine
Naseem Maalouf: The Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine
Aviram Nissan: The Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer
Judith Sandbank: The Pathology Institute, Maccabi Healthcare Services
Einav Yehuda-Shnaidman: The Pathology Institute, Maccabi Healthcare Services
Falk Ponath: Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI), Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (HZI)
Jörg Vogel: Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI), Helmholtz Center for Infection Research (HZI)
Ofer Mandelboim: Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School
Zvi Granot: Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School
Ravid Straussman: Weizmann Institute of Science
Gilad Bachrach: The Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Dental Medicine

Nature Communications, 2020, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Fusobacterium nucleatum is an oral anaerobe recently found to be prevalent in human colorectal cancer (CRC) where it is associated with poor treatment outcome. In mice, hematogenous F. nucleatum can colonize CRC tissue using its lectin Fap2, which attaches to tumor-displayed Gal-GalNAc. Here, we show that Gal-GalNAc levels increase as human breast cancer progresses, and that occurrence of F. nucleatum gDNA in breast cancer samples correlates with high Gal-GalNAc levels. We demonstrate Fap2-dependent binding of the bacterium to breast cancer samples, which is inhibited by GalNAc. Intravascularly inoculated Fap2-expressing F. nucleatum ATCC 23726 specifically colonize mice mammary tumors, whereas Fap2-deficient bacteria are impaired in tumor colonization. Inoculation with F. nucleatum suppresses accumulation of tumor infiltrating T cells and promotes tumor growth and metastatic progression, the latter two of which can be counteracted by antibiotic treatment. Thus, targeting F. nucleatum or Fap2 might be beneficial during treatment of breast cancer.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16967-2 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-16967-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-16967-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().