Shotgun metagenomics reveals Bacteroides stercoris as a fecal biomarker depleted in late-stage hepatocellular carcinoma

Simultaneous study of the gut and the liver is promising for a better understanding of hepatic malignancies, since both organs communicate through the gut-liver axis. Gut Microbiota (GM), which under normal circumstances contributes to the host homeostasis, may become dysbiotic, which can in turn contribute to liver inflammation. Prolonged liver inflammation in cirrhotic patients, for example due to gut-liver translocation and/or alcohol exposure, can lead to the development of Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC), the most frequent form of primary liver cancer, which is associated with a poor prognosis especially since it is often diagnosed at a stage too advanced to be curable. In this study, we characterized using shotgun metagenomics the GM of 51 HCC patients included in the prospective French CHIEF cohort in order to elucidate how the GM changes alongside HCC progression. Patients were retrospectively selected from the cohort of the Amiens University Hospital based on the availability of the stool samples and the Barcelona Classification of Liver Cancer (BCLC) of the liver biopsy at the inclusion.

同步开展肠道与肝脏的联合研究，有助于更深入地解析肝脏恶性肿瘤的发病机制——二者通过肠-肝轴（gut-liver axis）实现信号交互。肠道菌群（Gut Microbiota, GM）在正常生理状态下可维持宿主内稳态，但若发生菌群失调，则可能诱发肝脏炎症。肝硬化患者若长期存在肝脏炎症（如由肠-肝易位（gut-liver translocation）或酒精暴露引发），可能进展为肝细胞癌（Hepatocellular Carcinoma, HCC）——这是最常见的原发性肝癌类型，预后极差，且往往因确诊时已处于晚期而无法实现根治。本研究采用鸟枪宏基因组学（shotgun metagenomics）技术，对前瞻性法国CHIEF队列中纳入的51例肝细胞癌患者的肠道菌群进行表征，以阐明肠道菌群随肝细胞癌进展的变化规律。本研究通过粪便样本的可获得性，以及入组时肝活检的巴塞罗那肝癌分期（Barcelona Classification of Liver Cancer, BCLC）结果，从亚眠大学医院的队列中回顾性筛选受试者。