Uncovering Microbial Composition in Human Breast Cancer Primary Tumour Tissue Using Transcriptomic RNA-seq

Recent research studies are showing breast tissues as a place where various species of microorganisms can thrive and cannot be considered sterile, as previously thought. We analysed the microbial composition of primary tumour tissue and normal breast tissue and found differences between them and between multiple breast cancer phenotypes. We sequenced the transcriptome of breast tumours and normal tissues (from cancer-free women) of 23 individuals from Slovakia and used bioinformatics tools to uncover differences in the microbial composition of tissues. To analyse our RNA-seq data (rRNA depleted), we used and tested Kraken2 and Metaphlan3 tools. Kraken2 has shown higher reliability for our data. Additionally, we analysed 91 samples obtained from SRA database, originated in China and submitted by Sichuan University. In breast tissue, the most enriched group were Proteobacteria, then Firmicutes and Actinobacteria for both datasets, in Slovak samples also Bacteroides, while in Chinese samples Cyanobacteria were more frequent. We have observed changes in the microbiome between cancerous and healthy tissues and also different phenotypes of diseases, based on the presence of circulating tumour cells and few other markers.