Journal News

Gut microbes could be key for cancer therapies

Oluwadamilola “Dami” Oke
July 25, 2023

Microorganisms produce substances that play a role in several of the human body’s metabolic processes. In some cases, the specific function and mechanism of action of these metabolites still mystify scientists. Uncovering these mysteries could lead to groundbreaking targeted therapies for cancer and other diseases.

The short-chain fatty acid butyrate is a bacterial metabolite involved in intestinal homeostasis that serves as a source of energy and initiates differentiation in epithelial cells. Because low cell differentiation is a characteristic of cancer cells, cancer researchers try to understand how bacterial metabolites such as butyrate affect epithelial cell differentiation and molecular phenotype.

Katarina Madunić and a team of scientists in the Netherlands studied glycosylation and differentiation in cells from the Caco-2 cell line, such as those shown in this contrast microscopy image.
Aplarey/Wikimedia Commons
Katarina Madunić and a team of scientists in the Netherlands studied glycosylation and differentiation in cells from the Caco-2 cell line, such as those shown in this contrast microscopy image.

Katarina Madunić and a team of scientists in the Netherlands investigated the effect of bacterial butyrate on glycosylation and differentiation in an epithelial cell line derived from a human colorectal carcinoma in 1977 and known as Caco-2. They recently published their findings in the journal Molecular & Cellular Proteomics.

Mass spectrometry, or MS, separates molecules based on their mass-to-charge ratio and is frequently used to study metabolites. However, Madunić’s team was analyzing glycans that had identical masses, so the usefulness of MS was limited. To overcome this limitation, they used a unique separation technique called porous graphitized carbon nano-liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization tandem MS.

Manfred Wuhrer, the corresponding author of the study, explained that this method uses a “high-end charcoal variant that separates the sugars one by one, hence resolving the isomers for mass spectrometric characterization.”

This unique approach was pioneered by a group of Australian researchers who published about it in 2004. It proved to be a technique that Madunić’s team could build upon for their investigations.

The researchers were surprised to find that the glycosylation of differentiated cells from the CaCo-2 cell line was substantially different from the glycosylation of other differentiated colorectal cell lines from their previous work.

Madunić said this finding “made us look into the changes in the cell proteome, from which we formed interesting hypotheses about the importance of glycan building block availability in the cell culture media influencing the cell glycosylation changes.”

In this study, the researchers wanted to investigate changes in glycosylation that occurred during differentiation in a particular cancer cell line. They did so, identifying specific O-glycans along with specific protein expressions that mark butyrate-induced versus spontaneous epithelial cell differentiation.

These findings are a step toward creating a repository of cancer-implicated metabolic and associated glycomic signatures. Such a repository can be used to further study the pathophysiology of various cancers and, consequently, to help develop targeted cancer therapies.

In future studies, the researchers hope to use more robust multiomics analysis to provide more depth to their findings and provide more mechanistic insights, Wuhrer said.

“We would like more information on the cellular metabolic signature and the expression of the glyco-genes, which shape the O-glycans. How is this evolving and changing upon bacterial metabolite exposure?”

Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?

Become a member to receive the print edition four times a year and the digital edition monthly.

Learn more
Oluwadamilola “Dami” Oke

Oluwadamilola “Dami” Oke is a Ph.D. candidate of biomedical engineering at the George Washington University with an interest in communication and outreach for science advancement. She is an ASBMB Today contributing writer.

Get the latest from ASBMB Today

Enter your email address, and we’ll send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.

Latest in Science

Science highlights or most popular articles

How signals shape DNA via gene regulation
Journal News

How signals shape DNA via gene regulation

Aug. 19, 2025

A new chromatin isolation technique reveals how signaling pathways reshape DNA-bound proteins, offering insight into potential targets for precision therapies. Read more about this recent MCP paper.

A game changer in cancer kinase target profiling
Journal News

A game changer in cancer kinase target profiling

Aug. 19, 2025

A new phosphonate-tagging method improves kinase inhibitor profiling, revealing off-target effects and paving the way for safer, more precise cancer therapies tailored to individual patients. Read more about this recent MCP paper.

How scientists identified a new neuromuscular disease
Feature

How scientists identified a new neuromuscular disease

Aug. 14, 2025

NIH researchers discover Morimoto–Ryu–Malicdan syndrome, after finding shared symptoms and RFC4 gene variants in nine patients, offering hope for faster diagnosis and future treatments.

Unraveling cancer’s spaghetti proteins
Profile

Unraveling cancer’s spaghetti proteins

Aug. 13, 2025

MOSAIC scholar Katie Dunleavy investigates how Aurora kinase A shields oncogene c-MYC from degradation, using cutting-edge techniques to uncover new strategies targeting “undruggable” molecules.

How HCMV hijacks host cells — and beyond
Profile

How HCMV hijacks host cells — and beyond

Aug. 12, 2025

Ileana Cristea, an ASBMB Breakthroughs webinar speaker, presented her research on how viruses reprogram cell structure and metabolism to enhance infection and how these mechanisms might link viral infections to cancer and other diseases.

Understanding the lipid link to gene expression in the nucleus
Profile

Understanding the lipid link to gene expression in the nucleus

Aug. 11, 2025

Ray Blind, an ASBMB Breakthroughs speaker, presented his research on how lipids and sugars in the cell nucleus are involved in signaling and gene expression and how these pathways could be targeted to identify therapeutics for diseases like cancer.