J Cancer 2016; 7(11):1421-1430. doi:10.7150/jca.15480 This issue Cite
Review
Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, The University of Texas at Austin, Dell Pediatric Research Institute, 1400 Barbara Jordan Blvd. R1800, Austin, TX 78723, United States.
Gut microbiota are required for host nutrition, energy balance, and regulating immune homeostasis, however, in some cases, this mutually beneficial relationship becomes twisted (dysbiosis), and the gut flora can incite pathological disorders including colon cancer. Microbial dysbiosis promotes the release of bacterial genotoxins, metabolites, and causes chronic inflammation, which promote oxidative DNA damage. Oxidized DNA base lesions are removed by base excision repair (BER), however, the role of this altered function of BER, as well as microbiota-mediated genomic instability and colon cancer development, is still poorly understood. In this review article, we will discuss how dysbiotic microbiota induce DNA damage, its impact on base excision repair capacity, the potential link of host BER gene polymorphism, and the risk of dysbiotic microbiota mediated genomic instability and colon cancer.
Keywords: Microbiota, Base excision repair, Colon cancer.