The development of CRC involves a complex interaction between intrinsic and extrinsic factors, including gut dysbiosis. In this regard, mainly opportunistic pathogenic bacteria that produce enterotoxins such as fraglysin, colibactin, and cytolethal distension toxin have been identified in CRC (Zhou and Fang 2018), which contributes to the inflammatory process and the "driver-passenger" effect. This implies that bacteria called drivers colonize in the first step and invade, causing damage for that; in the second step, it allows other commensals called passengers or their products to pass through the epithelium to enhance the damage (Avril and DePaolo 2021). Thus, in a first approach, probiotics, mainly Lactobacillus, have been proposed to be an excellent option to restore the imbalance; though this is a proposed mechanism of action by modulating bacterial populations, it could also be cause of postbiotics, that is, the products or byproducts, metabolic secreted by living probiotic bacteria or released after bacterial lysis such as bacteriocins, biosurfactants, exopolysaccharides, and siderophores, among others (Kanmani et al. 2013). The Bacillus genus has also been shown to have anticarcinogenic properties. In fact, the supernatant of B. coagulans overexpresses the pro-apoptotic genes bax, casp3, and casp9 in SKBR3 breast cancer cells (Dolati et al. 2022); consequently, the Bacillus are potential targets. study around the CRC.
Thus, this work demonstrated that the postbiotic of B. Mojavensis isolated from Pulque decreases the viability and migration of colorectal cancer SW-480 cells, reinforcing the benefits of the metabiotics produced by probiotics. As probiotics, Bacillus species are beginning to be studied in their vegetative and spore forms because the latter has excellent stability under different environmental and gastrointestinal conditions and can germinate in the gastrointestinal tract, colonize, and generate stimulation of the immune system more efficiently than vegetative cells, the most studied being B. subtilis, B. clausii, B. coagulans, B. licheniformis, and B. polyfermenticus (Duc et al. 2004; Lee et al. 2019).
Chen et al, (2015) demonstrated that the conditioned medium of B. subtilis participates in the protection against damage in intestinal epithelial cells and inhibits the growth of colorectal cancer cells in a time and dose-dependent manner, promoting apoptosis and cell cycle arrest. In addition, in mice treated with dimethhydrazine (DMH) supplemented with B. subtilis, the expression of Th2 and Th17 increased by DMH was reduced, as well as the expression of transcriptional factors associated with the inflammatory process and cancer progression such as TLR4–MYD88–NF-κB., IL-22, and SURVIVIN, as well as increased expression of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21 and decreased levels of NF-κB, p-ERK, and β-catenin (Chen et al., 2015)(Chen et al., 2015).
The B. Mojavensis postbiotic used in this work is undergoing metabolomic and proteomic analysis. However, some metabolites produced by Bacillus with anticancer properties have recently been reported. For example, a cytotoxic compound was isolated from B. vallismortis strain BIT 33, which has been shown to have high cytotoxicity and proapoptotic capacity at 1 and 10 µg/mL in colon cancer cell lines HCT116, HT-29, and SW480 (Jeong et al. 2008).
The inhibition of the migration is an anti-cancer property of probiotics such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium represent a therapeutic option for metastasis (Motevaseli et al. 2017). For example, administering a pool of B. longum, B. bifidum, L. acidophilus and L. plantarum has shown the ability to inhibit migration, CT26 cell invasion, and tumor growth (Shang et al. 2020). Interestingly, we now show that the postbiotic of the used strain of B. mojanvensis isolated from pulque inhibits cancer cell migration. The mechanisms by which they do so are not fully described. However, it has been reported that the supernatant of L. acidophilus and L. rhamnosus GG decreases the expression of extracellular matrix metalloproteases such as MMP2 and MMP9 and increases the expression of metallopeptidase inhibitors such as TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 in HeLa and HT29 cells (Nouri et al. 2016). TIMP-1 has been identified as a critical protein in colon cancer since it promotes cell proliferation and invasion capacity(Ma et al. 2022). Of the metabolites responsible for the inhibition of migration, the group of An et al. (2019) reported that an 8 kDa protein produced by Lactobacillus rhamnosus KCTC 12202BP inhibited the migration of DLD1 colon cancer cells and further down-regulated expression of Cyclin B1 and Cdk1.
The chronic inflammatory process is a factor that favors the progression of cancer of the esophagus, mouth (Gonçalves et al. 2016), gastric (Chochi et al. 2008), bladder(Olbert et al. 2015), and CRC (ZHU et al. 2019). In this context, it has been identified that inflammation can be induced by bacterial LPS, which has been reported to induce increased expression of TNF-α, IL-6, COX-2, MMP-7, and VEGF-C. in the SW480 colorectal cancer cell line. This effect is abolished when the expression of MyD88 is suppressed, which induces the inhibition of the expression of /NF-ĸB/MAPK (Zhu et al., 2019). In contrast, anti-inflammatory effects of probiotic bacteria such as Bacillus polyfermenticus KU3 and Lactococcus lactis NK34 have been demonstrated, which decrease the levels of proinflammatory cytokines induced by LPS (Lee et al. 2015). In this work, we report that LPS effectively induces the proliferation of SW-480 cells, and we show for the first time that this effect is suppressed by the B. Mojavensis postbiotic, evidencing its potential use in the treatment of colorectal cancer.
Regarding the molecules present in postbiotics, it has been shown that the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS)produced by B.subtilis at a concentration of 400 g/mL has been shown to decrease HeLa cell viability after 24 hours. In addition, the oral administration of 200 mg/kg of EPS by oral administration increased the phagocytic activity of macrophages and the levels of IL-2 in the blood. The mechanism of action of EPS has not been elucidated, however, it has antioxidant activity (Zhang and Yi 2022). Por otro lado, B. subtilis cuando se cultiva en medio Difco Sporulation Medium (DSM) produce una proteína de choque termico llamada GroEL de 60 kDa, la cual induce el aumento de los niveles de anti-inflammatory IL-10 and pro-inflammatory IL-12 in THP-1 dendritic cells (Uesugi et al. 2023).
One of the most essential items discussed about the therapeutic use of probiotics in cancer is to guarantee their safety in this sense. In the present work, we demonstrate that the postbiotic B. mojavensis has no cytotoxic effect on healthy PBMC cells and that the effect is of the type selective in inducing cytotoxicity in cancer cells.
In this regard, parasporins, proteins produced by B. thuringiensis during sporulation, have also been shown to have a selective effect. Borin et al. (2021) reported that parasporins A13-2 and A13-5 decrease the viability of MCF7 breast cancer cells but not on PBMCs and that A13-2 at concentrations of 0.03 to 4.13 µg/mL does not induce hemolysis in erythrocytes. In fact, on the contrary, A13-5 at a concentration of 4 µg/mL increased the viability of PBMCs, did not generate changes in nitric oxide levels, and decreased reactive oxygen species. With all the results, it is shown that the postbiotic produced by the strain of B. mojavensis isolated from Pulque has potential applications in the treatment of CRC, not only due to its effect in reducing cell proliferation but also due to its ability to inhibit migration, counteract the proliferative effect that is induced by LPS and does not induce cytotoxicity in healthy cells. It is essential to continue with future studies in order to identify the metabolites and proteins it produces.