Nutrients (Oct 2022)

Flavonoid Intake in Relation to Colorectal Cancer Risk and Blood Bacterial DNA

  • Michela Carola Speciani,
  • Marcello Cintolo,
  • Mirko Marino,
  • Maya Oren,
  • Federica Fiori,
  • Giorgio Gargari,
  • Patrizia Riso,
  • Clorinda Ciafardini,
  • Federica Mascaretti,
  • Maria Parpinel,
  • Aldo Airoldi,
  • Marcello Vangeli,
  • Pierfrancesco Leone,
  • Paolo Cantù,
  • Pagona Lagiou,
  • Cristian Del Bo’,
  • Maurizio Vecchi,
  • Pietro Carnevali,
  • Barbara Oreggia,
  • Simone Guglielmetti,
  • Rossella Bonzi,
  • Giulia Bonato,
  • Monica Ferraroni,
  • Carlo La Vecchia,
  • Roberto Penagini,
  • Massimiliano Mutignani,
  • Marta Rossi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14214516
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 14, no. 21
p. 4516

Abstract

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Flavonoids have been inversely associated to colorectal cancer (CRC) and are plausible intermediaries for the relation among gut microbiome, intestinal permeability and CRC. We analyzed the relation of flavonoid intake with CRC and blood bacterial DNA. We conducted a case–control study in Italy involving 100 incident CRC cases and 200 controls. A valid and reproducible food–frequency questionnaire was used to assess dietary habits and to estimate six flavonoid subclass intakes. We applied qPCR and 16S rRNA gene profiling to assess blood bacterial DNA. We used multiple logistic regression to derive odds ratios (ORs) of CRC and Mann–Whitney and chi-–square tests to evaluate abundance and prevalence of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) according to flavonoid intakes. Inverse associations with CRC were found for anthocyanidins (OR for the highest versus the lowest tertile = 0.24, 95% confidence interval, CI = 0.11–0.52) and flavanones (OR = 0.18, 95% CI = 0.08–0.42). We found different abundance and prevalence according to anthocyanidin and flavanone intake for OTUs referring to Oligoflexales order, Diplorickettsiaceae family, Staphylococcus, Brevundimonas, Pelomonas and Escherischia–Shigella genera, and Flavobacterium and Legionella species. The study provides evidence to a protective effect of dietary anthocyanidins and flavanones on CRC and suggests an influence of flavonoids on blood bacterial DNA, possibly through intestinal permeability changes.

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