New Flu Treatment 'Tamiflu' Also Shows Colon Cancer Suppression Effects

Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology

Reference photo. Photo by Asia Economy DB

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] Domestic researchers have for the first time confirmed that Tamiflu, a treatment for novel flu, has effects in suppressing intestinal inflammation and colorectal cancer.

The Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology announced on the 3rd that Dr. Lee Jung-soo's team at the Disease Target Structure Research Center and Dr. Ryu Chung-min's team at the Infectious Disease Research Center discovered that sialic acid synthesis inhibitors such as Tamiflu inhibit the proliferation of harmful bacteria, thereby controlling the occurrence of colitis-associated colorectal cancer caused by an imbalance in the gut microbiome.

p53 is a gene that suppresses abnormal cell proliferation and induces the death of cancer cells, also known as a tumor suppressor gene. However, when the p53 gene fails to perform its normal function of regulating cell division, growth, and death in a regular cycle and undergoes mutation, it is known to abnormally repeat only division, leading to cancer cells. Recent studies report that p53 mutations induce chronic inflammation in the colon and damage intestinal epithelial cells, making it one of the key causes of early colorectal cancer development.

Another important factor related to intestinal inflammation and colorectal cancer is the imbalance of the gut microbiome. When the gut microbiome, which normally maintains a stable community balance within the host, shifts to an imbalanced state, it induces inflammatory responses and indirectly promotes colorectal cancer.

Although it was anticipated that p53 mutations and gut microbiome imbalance might be related to the development of inflammatory colorectal cancer, studies on the correlation between these factors had not yet been reported.

The research team used a zebrafish animal model to demonstrate that p53 mutations increase gut microbiome imbalance accompanied by intestinal inflammation, leading to inflammatory colorectal cancer. The p53 mutation abnormally raises the concentration of sialic acid, an organic compound in the gut, which causes excessive proliferation of the harmful bacterium Aeromonas, resulting in gut microbiome imbalance, intestinal inflammation, and progression to inflammatory colorectal cancer.

Based on this, the team revealed that by controlling the gut sialic acid concentration using Oseltamivir (brand name Tamiflu), a well-known sialidase inhibitor, the proliferation of Aeromonas bacteria can be suppressed, significantly reducing intestinal inflammatory responses.

Dr. Lee Jung-soo stated, “This shows the possibility that intestinal inflammation and colorectal cancer can occur due to gut microbiome imbalance, and that controlling sialic acid metabolism can regulate this imbalance.” He added, “The newly discovered function of sialidase inhibitors is expected to greatly contribute to the development of treatments for related diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease and inflammatory colorectal cancer.”

The research results were published online on the 6th of last month in the international academic journal Microbiome (IF 14.65), which specializes in the microbiome (gut microorganisms) field.