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Updated: Nov 26, 2025

Modeling Oral-Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma in 3D Organoids
Published on: December 23, 2022
Fusobacterium nucleatum confers chemoresistance by modulating autophagy in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma
Yang Liu1,2, Yoshifumi Baba2,3, Takatsugu Ishimoto2,4
1Second Oncology Department, Shengjing Hospital affiliated of China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning, China.
Background:
Fusobacterium nucleatum (F. nucleatum) is a gut microbe implicated in gastrointestinal tumorigenesis. Predicting the chemotherapeutic response is critical to developing personalised therapeutic strategies for oesophageal cancer patients. The present study investigated the relationship between F. nucleatum and chemotherapeutic resistance in oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).
Methods:
We examined the relationship between F. nucleatum and chemotherapy response in 120 ESCC resected specimens and 30 pre-treatment biopsy specimens. In vitro studies using ESCC cell lines and co-culture assays further uncovered the mechanism underlying chemotherapeutic resistance.
Results:
ESCC patients with F. nucleatum infection displayed lesser chemotherapeutic response. The infiltration and subsistence of F. nucleatum in the ESCC cells were observed by transmission electron microscopy and laser scanning confocal microscopy. We also observed that F. nucleatum modulates the endogenous LC3 and ATG7 expression, as well as autophagosome formation to induce chemoresistance against 5-FU, CDDP, and Docetaxel. ATG7 knockdown resulted in reversal of F. nucleatum-induced chemoresistance. In addition, immunohistochemical studies confirmed the correlation between F. nucleatum infection and ATG7 expression in 284 ESCC specimens.
Conclusions:
F. nucleatum confers chemoresistance to ESCC cells by modulating autophagy. These findings suggest that targeting F. nucleatum, during chemotherapy, could result in variable therapeutic outcomes for ESCC patients.
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