Human microbiome is a diagnostic biomarker in hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the third leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. Increasing evidence indicates a close relationship between HCC and the human microbiota. Herein, we reviewed the important potential of the human microbiota as a diagnostic biomarker of HCC. DATA SOURCES: Several innovative studies have investigated the characteristics of the gut and oral microbiomes in patients with HCC and proposed that the human microbiome has the potential to be a diagnostic biomarker of HCC. Literature from February 1999 to February 2019 was searched in the PubMed database using the keywords "microbiota" or "microbiome" or "microbe" and "liver cancer" or "hepatocellular carcinoma", and the results of clinical and experimental studies were analyzed. RESULTS: Specific changes occur in the human microbiome of patients with HCC. Moreover, the gut microbiome and oral microbiome can be used as non-invasive diagnostic biomarkers for HCC. Furthermore, they also have certain diagnostic potential for precancerous diseases of HCC. The diagnostic potential of the blood microbiota and ascites microbiota in HCC will be gradually discovered in the future. CONCLUSIONS: The human microbiome is valuable to the diagnosis of HCC and provides a novel strategy for targeted therapy of HCC. The human microbiome may be widely used in the diagnosis, treatment and prognosis for multiple system diseases or cancers in the future.

Microbial community and antibiotic resistance gene distribution in food waste, anaerobic digestate, and paddy soil.

The study assessed the occurrence and distribution of microbial community and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in food waste, anaerobic digestate, and paddy soil samples, and revealed the potential hosts of ARGs and factors influencing their distribution. A total of 24 bacterial phyla were identified, of which 16 were shared by all samples, with Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, and Proteobacteria accounting for 65.9-92.3 % of the total bacterial community. Firmicutes was the most abundant bacteria in food waste and digestate samples, accounting for 33-83 % of the total microbial community. However, in paddy soil samples with digestate, Proteobacteria had the highest relative abundance of 38-60 %. Further, 22 ARGs were detected in food waste and digestate samples, with multidrug, macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin (MLS), bacitracin, aminoglycoside, tetracycline, vancomycin, sulfonamide, and rifamycin resistance genes being the most abundant and shared by all samples. The highest total relative abundance of ARGs in food waste, digestate, and soil without and with digestate was detected in samples from January 2020, May 2020, October 2019, and May 2020, respectively. The MLS, vancomycin, tetracycline, aminoglycoside, and sulfonamide resistance genes had higher relative abundance in food waste and anaerobic digestate samples, whereas multidrug, bacteriocin, quinolone, and rifampin resistance genes were more abundant in paddy soil samples. Redundancy analysis demonstrated that aminoglycoside, tetracycline, sulfonamide, and rifamycin resistance genes were positively correlated with total ammonia nitrogen and pH of food waste and digestate samples. Vancomycin, multidrug, bacitracin, and fosmidomycin resistance genes had positive correlations with potassium, moisture, and organic matter in soil samples. The co-occurrence of ARG subtypes with bacterial genera was investigated using network analysis. Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Acidobacteria were identified as potential hosts of multidrug resistance genes.