A common bacterium in our intestine could be causing more problems than we imagine. A study published this week has found evidence that a mutagenic toxin produced by some strains of They exhibited chill It can trigger early starting cancer.
The scientists of the University of California in San Diego led the research, which was published on Wednesday in the magazine Nature. They found a link between exposure to toxin, called colibactin, and a higher risk of Colorectal cancer in young adults. The findings could help explain why the early starting color cancer rate has mysteriously increased in recent years, although more research is needed to confirm a causal connection, according to researchers.
Global figures
Colorectal cancer is the most common fourth cancer, with approximately 150,000 Americans diagnosed every year. It is also the second main cause of cancer death, killing around 50,000 Americans annually.
As with many types of cancer, the incidence and mortality rate of colorectal cancer have been constantly decreasing over time. However, this decrease is not distributed equally, since the incidence of colorectal cancer has increased among young and middle -aged adults. According to the American Cancer Society, colorectal cancer rates between people under 50 increased 2.4% per year between 2012 and 2021.
Scientists are not sure why these cancers have become more common in young Americans, although some research suggests processed foods, the highest obesity rates and other lifestyle factors. But this new study seems to add another suspect.
Study researchers were not specifically seeking to solve this mystery; They were more interested in understanding why some parts of the world have higher colorectal cancer rates than others. To do this, they analyzed the genetic firm of colorectal cancers of almost 1,000 people worldwide. These samples included people with late and early start cancers.
Colibactin is already known for causing mutations in our cells that could increase the risk of cancer, and previous studies have linked it to colorectal cancer. However, the researchers were surprised to find that the mutations related to the colibactin were three times more commonly in the early start cancers than in the late start. They also found molecular evidence that these mutations related to colibactin tend to appear early in the development of a tumor, suggesting that they play a vital role in impulse of these cancers.
Each time they attack younger people
Together with other investigations that show that mutations related to colibactin often appear in the first ten years of life, the authors argue that this toxin could be a main instigator of early starting colorectal cancer.
“These mutation patterns are a kind of historical record in the genome, and indicate early exposure to colibactin as a driving force behind the early start disease,” said Ludmil Alexandrov, main author of the study and specialist in Cancer Genomic in UC San Diego, in a University statement.
Researchers point out that colibactin could be just a large piece of a larger puzzle. They point out that mutations related to colibactin are rarely found in more rural parts of the world. Therefore, it is possible that other environmental factors, such as diet or the use of antibiotics, are promoting the growth of Bacteria E. coli colibactin producers in the intestine in places such as the US. UU. Apart from the colibactin, there could be other exhibitions that explain the highest cancer rates in different countries.
However, team findings provide fertile terrain for future investigations and could even lead to interventions that may stop or reverse the increase in early starting colorectal cancer. Researchers already expect to study if probiotics could eliminate these more harmful E. coli strains, and are trying to develop early detection tests that can identify mutations related to colibactin.
All this work, however, depends on more financing. And the researchers rush to point out that the US government, under the presidency of Donald Trump, has aggressively limited the financing of the National Health Institutes in recent months, the same type of financing that could be used for important research on cancer as yours.
“If the cuts in NIH financing affect our ability to do this job, that will be, in my opinion, a substantial coup for cancer research not only in the US. UU., But worldwide,” said Alexandrov. “Our financing has allowed us to collaborate with cancer researchers worldwide, collecting and analyzing large patient sampling sets in several countries. That type of scale is what makes possible discoveries like this.”
This article has been translated from Gizmoda US by Lucas Handley. Here you can find the original version.
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