Tissue analysis reveals immune and proliferative signatures in Fusobacterium nucleatum-positive colorectal adenomas, highlighting microbial associations in early precancerous lesions.
Fusobacterium nucleatum has been implicated in colorectal cancer, but its role in adenomas remains unclear. We applied an RNA-based detection of F. nucleatum in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded adenoma tissue and explored the mutational landscape and transcriptomic profile of F. nucleatum+ patients in comparison to F. nucleatum- patients. Bespoke F. nucleatum probes successfully detected F. nucleatum in 11% of adenomas. F. nucleatum+ patients exhibited a positively enriched anti-bacterial defence response and immune-related transcriptomic signatures, as well as a proliferative profile. These findings suggest that F. nucleatum positivity is associated with immune and proliferative transcriptomic signatures in colorectal adenomas, but this requires validation in larger, longitudinal cohorts.
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Al-Badran et al. (2026) studied this question.
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