CoPEC and chemotherapeutic drugs resistance

Colibactin-producing E. coli (CoPEC) increase colorectal tumor development in mice. Furthermore they also induce mutations which are found in patients' tumors. Here we investigated the impact of CoPEC on chemotherapeutic drugs resistance. For that we used in vitro models as well as in vivo (xenograft and AOM/DSS).
We analyzed the expression of proteins known to be involved in drug resistance (proteins involved in epithelial mesenchymal transition as well as cancer stem cell). We found an up-regulation of those proteins after CoPEC infection. Data were validated in vivo. Together our results suggest that CoPEC might increase chemotherapeutic drugs resistance.