Nature: Antioxidant-rich foods such as black tea, chocolate, and berries may increase the risk of colorectal cancer.

August 6, 2020 // -- There's a long-standing concern for doctors about the fact that small intestine cancer is very rare, while colorectal cancer is very common, the colorectal cell is a very small organ adjacent to the small intestine, and colorectal cancer is one of the main causes of cancer death in patients, so why does colorectal tissue have cancer? To answer this question, in a recent study published in the international journal Nature, scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and other institutions found that cancer mutations may not be a bad thing in themselves. It's not spreading cancer, however, if the gut microbiome can produce a lot of metabolites, such as certain bacteria and antioxidant-rich foods found in certain bacteria such as black tea and hot cocoa, it can become a particularly suitable environment for genetic mutations and accelerate cancer growth.
photo source: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain, when researchers carefully analyzed gastrointestinal cancers, they noticed the gut microbiome and found why only 2% of cancers occur in the small intestine, while up to 98% of cancers occur in the colon. One of the most important differences in organs is the level of intestinal bacteria they carry, the lower levels in the small intestine and the higher levels in the colon, so scientists are increasingly concerned about the key role of the gut microbiome in the health of the body, both positive and, in some cases, to promote disease.
We all know that TP53 is a gene that exists in every cell and produces a special protein called p53 that acts as a cellular barrier that inhibits the production of genetic mutations in cells;
To analyze the key role played by the gut bacteria, the researchers introduced the mutant p53 protein into the intestines and found that when the mutant p53 cancer driver is converted to normal p53, the small intestine re-reacts. Converting into a super inhibitor is a better way to suppress cancer growth than a healthy p53 protein; however, when a mutated p53x is introduced into colon tissue, it does not mutate, but it maintains the properties that drive the cancer and promotes its spread.
researcher Ben-Neriah said the gut bacteria appear to play a dual role in the mutant p53 protein, which in small intestine tissue can completely change its orientation and begin to attack cancer cells, while in colon tissue it promotes the growth of cancer cells.
To further validate the researchers' theory that the intestinal bacterus is the main factor that induces the mutation of p53 as a tumor blocker in the small intestine and a tumor promoter in the colon, the researchers used antibiotics to kill the gut bacteria in the colon, and found that the mutated p53 did not continue to promote the growth and spread of cancer.
So what makes colon cancer spread so quickly, the researchers found that the culprit, a metabolite called antioxidants produced by the gut bacteriocytes, is high in foods such as black tea, hot chocolate, nuts and berries, and it's clear that when scientists fed mice foods rich in antioxidants, the gut cytosus accelerates the cancer-driven pattern of p53, which has been found to be particularly important for patients with a family history of colorectal cancer. Ben-Neriah, a researcher at
, said: 'Scientifically, this is a new area, and we were surprised to find that in some cases, the extent to which microorganisms affect cancer mutations depends entirely on their nature, and in the future, individuals at high risk of colorectal cancer may need to frequently examine their body's gut bacteria and re-think the food, antioxidants and other things they digest.'
() Original source: Kadosh, E., Snir-Alkalay, I., Venkatachalam, A. et al. The gut microbiome switches mutant p53 from tumour-suppressive to oncogenic. Nature (2020). doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2541-0.