Composition and Diversity Differences between Colon Microbiome of Colorectal Cancer Patients and Healthy Individuals by Age

Abstract

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third cause of cancer death globally. New evidence suggests that colorectal microbiome dysbiosis may be involved in the cause and development of CRC. This study aimed to investigate the differences in bacterial composition and diversity between CRC samples and healthy individuals (HC) based on age through high-throughput 16S rRNA sequences. Biopsy samples were obtained from 17 CRC patients and 13 healthy controls (HC). We analyzed the colon microbiome composition and diversity by alpha and beta diversity. The results showed that colon microbial diversity was significantly higher in the CRC-32-50 and CRC-50-75 groups than in the healthy controls. Still, on the other hand, the diversity of group HC-32-50 was lower than all other groups. Prevotella, Faecalibacterium, Fusobacterium, and Akkermansia were overrepresented in the CRC-32-50, while Bacteroides were in the HC-32-50 group. Our results showed that the diversity and composition of the two groups, HC-32-50 and CRC-32-50, were significantly different. These findings suggest that dysbiosis is more common in CRC patients under the age of 50 than in those over 50. Further studies on the colon microbiome are needed to determine the diversity and composition of the colon microbiome in age-related colorectal cancer to complete our understanding of the impact of the microbiome on the progression of colon cancer.

Keywords

• microbiome
• colorectal cancer
• 16s rrna sequencing
• diversity
• dysbiosis