Detection of Fusobacterium spp in colorectal tissue samples using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction with minor groove binder probes: an exploratory research.

An unhealthy microbiome is intimately correlated with several disease states, including colorectal cancer, wherein bacteria might be the key to neoplastic initiation and progression. Recent studies revealed an enrichment of in colorectal tumor tissues relative to surrounding normal mucosa. Given the available evidence, we conducted an exploratory study quantifying the relative expression of spp in 28 tissue samples from patients treated at Centro Hospitalar de São João belonging to 4 different groups: adenomas, paired normal tissue from patients with adenomas, carcinomas, and paired normal tissue from patients with colorectal carcinomas. To increase reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction quantification sensitivity, minor groove binders fluorescent probes were used, having in mind its implementation into routine clinical practice. Differences of spp relative abundance between paired neoplastic lesions/normal tissue were examined by Wilcoxon signed-rank test and for all the other 2-group comparisons the Mann-Whitney test was used. Most of the adenomas studied belonged to clinical specimens showing either tubular or villous low-grade dysplasia and an enrichment of relative to paired normal tissue was not found ( = .180). In the carcinoma group, 57% of samples displayed a positive status for this with the highest burden of detectable belonging to a specimen with positive regional lymph node metastasis. This is the first Portuguese study confirming a trend toward an overabundance of in colorectal carcinomas compared to adenomas and paired samples of normal-looking mucosa, in keeping with the role of this in colorectal carcinogenesis. Further studies are needed to elucidate the relevance of detection for the prevention and treatment of colorectal cancer.