| RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS |


The bile duct, which carries digestive fluids


from the liver, through the gall bladder to the small intestines, has a unique community of resident bacteria that contribute to cancer.


Digestive microbes:


BILE DUCT BACTERIA POSE CANCER RISK


THE MIX OF MICROBES LIVING IN THE BILE DUCT COULD PLAY A ROLE IN A RARE BUT LETHAL FORM OF CANCER


From the stomach, to the gut and the breast — scientists have shown a link between cancer and the microbial communities living in various organs of our body. Now, researchers at A*STAR have made a new association between the microbes in the bile duct and fatal tumor formation1. “We don’t fully understand the risk factors


or environmental causes for many cancers,” says Niranjan Nagarajan at the A*STAR Genome Institute of Singapore, who led the study. “Microbiome research allows us to figure out whether these cancers might have


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a microbial basis, and potentially intervene to prevent or reduce the risk.” Bile duct cancer, or cholangiocarcinoma,


affects only about 1 in every 100,000 individuals worldwide, but incidence and mortality rates have increased in Southeast Asia, and in Thailand they are as high as 85 in 100,000. A major risk factor associated with cholangiocarcinoma in the region is infection from the liver fluke parasite found in raw fish. Nagarajan and colleagues wanted to know if the little-studied bile duct microbiome also


contributed to the disease. Using a technique known as 16S rRNA sequencing, they studied the bacterial composition in samples of healthy bile duct tissue and adjacent tumors taken from 60 patients, including those who had been infected with liver flukes. Overall, they found that the bile duct


microbiome was dominated by exotic species not typically seen in the human body. “The diversity was remarkable,” says Nagarajan. “Bile duct tissue has a unique microbial signature even compared to nearby organs like the liver.”


A*STAR RESEARCH 9


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