Early Pancreatic Cancer - Understanding the Role of Oral Microbiota

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is typically characterized by its aggressive growth and dismal prognosis. Mucinous pancreatic cyst neoplasms (PCN) are precursor lesions to PC. The low cancer diagnostic accuracy is a major clinical challenge. Pancreatic cancer linkage to oral microbiome is a growing topic of intensive interrogations.

Given that pancreatic and salivary gland in fact share multiple physiochemical and digestive enzyme functions, we hypothesize that the similarity could be exploited by opportunistic bacteria.

Recently we successfully classified PCN severity using deep microbiome and metabolite profiling, with extremely high precision. Culture analyses also confirmed oral bacteria in line with profiling data.

The purpose of this project is to continue this work using extended experimental studies to confirm this result, to clarify the cause-and-effect linkage between opportunistic microbes and pancreatic health.

To gain insight into the microbiomes of these two compartment, functional metagenomics and metabolomics analyses along with a 3D co-culture system will be utilised. Cancer-related cellular changes will be monitored in experimental conditions that simulate the cancer environment.

The results generated from these studies will improve current understanding on how microbial behaviour may impact pancreatic cell biology.

Biotechnology methods developed here will favour cancer diagnostics, as well as prevention and treatment of pancreatic diseases.