TY - JOUR AU - Okita, Yoshiki AU - Koi, Minoru AU - Takeda, Koki AU - Ross, Ryan AU - Mukherjee, Bhramar AU - Koeppe, Erika AU - Stoffel, Elena M. AU - Galanko, Joseph A. AU - McCoy, Amber N. AU - Keku, Temitope O. AU - Okugawa, Yoshinaga AU - Kitajima, Takahito AU - Toiyama, Yuji AU - Martens, Eric AU - Carethers, John M. PY - 2020 DA - 2020/09/29 TI - Fusobacterium nucleatum infection correlates with two types of microsatellite alterations in colorectal cancer and triggers DNA damage JO - Gut Pathogens SP - 46 VL - 12 IS - 1 AB - Fusobacterium nucleatum (Fn) is frequently found in colorectal cancers (CRCs). High loads of Fn DNA are detected in CRC tissues with microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H), or with the CpG island hypermethylation phenotype (CIMP). Fn infection is also associated with the inflammatory tumor microenvironment of CRC. A subtype of CRC exhibits inflammation-associated microsatellite alterations (IAMA), which are characterized by microsatellite instability-low (MSI-L) and/or an elevated level of microsatellite alterations at selected tetra-nucleotide repeats (EMAST). Here we describe two independent CRC cohorts in which heavy or moderate loads of Fn DNA are associated with MSI-H and L/E CRC respectively. We also show evidence that Fn produces factors that induce γ-H2AX, a hallmark of DNA double strand breaks (DSBs), in the infected cells. SN - 1757-4749 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s13099-020-00384-3 DO - 10.1186/s13099-020-00384-3 ID - Okita2020 ER -