Huijing Bao

The Gut Microbiota-Ovarian Cancer Axis: Mechanisms of Influence and Therapeutic Implications

Ovarian cancer (OC), one of the most lethal gynecological malignancies, urgently requires breakthrough diagnostic and therapeutic strategies due to its low survival rate and high recurrence rate. The gut microbiota (GM), which colonizes the human gastrointestinal tract, significantly influences human health. Recent technological advancements have enabled deeper investigation into tumor-bacteria interactions. The GM profoundly participates in OC initiation, progression, and treatment resistance by dynamically regulating the host's immune response, metabolism, and inflammatory microenvironment. This review focuses on three primary mechanisms by which the GM influences OC development and its impact on cancer therapies (chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and targeted therapy). At the mechanistic level, GM dysbiosis promotes OC through multiple pathways: (1) Modulating the tumor microenvironment (TME), including inducing immunosuppressive cell infiltration and impairing anti-tumor immunity; (2) Interfering with estrogen metabolism, thereby elevating bioactive estrogen levels; (3) Producing metabolites that mediate systemic inflammatory signaling and energy metabolism reprogramming. These alterations collectively drive tumor proliferation and metastasis. Although microbiota-based interventions offer novel opportunities for precision therapy in OC, clinical translation faces challenges such as mechanistic complexity and individual heterogeneity. Future research should integrate multi-omics technologies and large-scale clinical trials to advance microbiota modulation strategies from bench to bedside, thereby improving OC prognosis.

Fibronectin 1: A Potential Biomarker for Ovarian Cancer

Object. Ovarian cancer is one of the most common cancers among females with high mortality rate, due to most patients diagnosed at the advanced stage of the disease. Seeking new biomarkers for ovarian cancer detection and progress indication is really important for the patients. Methods. OVCAR3 and A2780 are the two common cell lines that are used for ovarian cancer studies. The different invasion and migration abilities were observed by scratch tests and transwell experiments in our preliminary study. Gene chip was used to screen the expression gene in these two different cell lines, and then, the differentially expressed genes (at least 2-fold difference, P value < 0.05) were analyzed using KEGG. Result. Fibronectin 1 (FN1) was found to be the most strongly correlated with the invasion and migration abilities of the OVCAR3 cells. Real-time PCR and FN1 knockout cell line was conducted and confirmed this finding. Based on the Oncomine database analysis, comparing with normal people, ovarian cancer patients exhibited high levels of FN1 expression. Additionally, higher FN1 expression was found in patients with higher FIGO stages of cancer. Conclusion. FN1 could be a new biomarker for ovarian cancer detection and progress indicator.