Effects of microbiota on anticancer drugs: Current knowledge and potential applications

Summary Over the last decade, mounting evidence has revealed the key roles of gut microbiota in modulating the efficacy and toxicity of anticancer drugs, via mechanisms such as immunomodulation and microbial enzymatic degradation. As such, human microbiota presents as an exciting prospect for developing biomarkers for predicting treatment outcomes and interventional approaches for improving therapeutic effects. In this review, we analyze the current knowledge of the interplays among gut microorganisms, host responses and anticancer therapies (including cytotoxic chemotherapy and targeted therapy), with an emphasis on the immunomodulation function of microbiota which facilitates the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors. Moreover, we propose several microbiota-modulating strategies including fecal microbiota transplantation and probiotics, which can be pursued to optimize the use and development of anticancer treatments. We anticipate that future clinical and preclinical studies will highlight the significance of human microbiome as a promising target towards precision medicine in cancer therapies. Funding National Key Research and Development Program of China (2020YFA0907800), Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Program (KQTD20200820145822023) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (31900056 and 32000096).

• Publication year

  2022

• Venue

  EBioMedicine

• Publication date

  2022-08-04

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104197PMID 35933808PMCID 9358415
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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