Genetic and environmental causes are certainly identified in the development of tumors, but increasingly numerous scientific evidence also attributes an important role to the microbiota in the onset of neoplasms. And this is because, following possible disruptions in the balance that regulates the interaction between man and his microorganisms, the latter, by interrupting or reducing the beneficial activity they normally carry out, become uncontrollable producers of metabolites with a toxic, inflammatory or carcinogenic. And the consequences of these aberrant dynamics, as well as in the gastrointestinal tract, are also manifested in other organs and systems.
A diet rich in fats, for example, promotes the development of liver tumors through the metabolic activities of some components of the microbiota capable of increasing the production of bile acids.
Lymphoma associated with celiac disease certainly arises following the chronic inflammation and profound structural alterations of the intestinal wall induced by gluten, but also following the consequential change of the microbiota with selection of bacteria – such as some strains of Escherichia coli and other proteobacteria – potential causative agents of adenocarcinomas or lymphomas.
Abnormal abundance of the bacterial species Campylobacter jejuni has been associated with lymphoma and immunoproliferative disorders such as multiple myeloma; while increased presences of Borrelia and Chlamydia are associated with cutaneous lymphoma and periocular B-cell lymphoma.
In the light of many scientific findings, therefore, today it is possible to state that the microbiota plays a key role in the dynamics that lead to the development of a tumor, also influencing the response to immuno-chemotherapy.
This will be the intriguing and complex topic at the center of the next appointment with “Ferments, the secret of life”, the format curated by the immunologist Mauro Minelli in collaboration with time.news salute, in which the surprising interactions between the human organism and the complex and in many ways unprecedented world of the intestinal microbiota are explored, episode by episode. Appointment at ore 15 Of Friday 14th April.