Metabolische Stammzell-Reprogrammierung durch Bakterien

Perturbance of a healthy gut microbiota is a common consequence to lifestyle, medication and disease,
with certain microbial compositions but also specific strains and their metabolites associated and in part
causally linked to sporadic colorectal cancer (CRC). Even though host metabolic reprogramming is a
recognized cancer hallmark, studies investigating the potential of cancer-associated bacteria to control
host metabolism are sparse. We aim to fill this gap by metabolically linking CRC-associated bacteria to
cancer initiation with the potential to be therapeutically targeted.
The most prominent example of metabolic reprogramming is the increased glucose uptake and
metabolism by cancer cells (Warburg effect). During glycolysis, glucose is processed to pyruvate in the
cytosol, and under aerobic conditions, ATP production follows via oxidative phosphorylation within
mitochondria. Under anaerobic conditions, pyruvate is further processed to lactate within the cytosol.
The Warburg effect describes the same anaerobic process despite the presence of oxygen, and is
therefore also referred to as aerobic glycolysis. Work done in the last decades has described many
oncogenic pathways regulating this metabolic reprogramming. Yet, little is known about non-genetic
59 events contributing to cancer metabolism.