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Review
. 2020 Jun 28;11(17):5135-5149.
doi: 10.7150/jca.47470. eCollection 2020.

Antibiotics for cancer treatment: A double-edged sword

Yuan Gao  1   2 , Qingyao Shang  1   2 , Wenyu Li  1   2 , Wenxuan Guo  1 , Alexander Stojadinovic  3 , Ciaran Mannion  3   4 , Yan-Gao Man  3 , Tingtao Chen  1
Affiliations
Review

Antibiotics for cancer treatment: A double-edged sword

Yuan Gao et al. J Cancer. .

Abstract

Various antibiotics have been used in the treatment of cancers, via their anti-proliferative, pro-apoptotic and anti-epithelial-mesenchymal-transition (EMT) capabilities. However, increasingly studies have indicated that antibiotics may also induce cancer generation by disrupting intestinal microbiota, which further promotes chronic inflammation, alters normal tissue metabolism, leads to genotoxicity and weakens the immune response to bacterial malnutrition, thereby adversely impacting cancer treatment. Despite the advent of high-throughput sequencing technology in recent years, the potential adverse effects of antibiotics on cancer treatments via causing microbial imbalance has been largely ignored. In this review, we discuss the double-edged sword of antibiotics in the field of cancer treatments, explore their potential mechanisms and provide solutions to reduce the potential negative effects of antibiotics.

Keywords: Antibiotics; Cancer; Cancer therapy; Intestinal microbiota disorder.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interest exists.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Classification and antibacterial mechanism of antibiotics. The four major mechanisms: inhibition of bacterial cell wall synthesis, enhancement of bacterial cell membrane permeability, interference with bacterial protein synthesis and inhibition of bacterial nucleic acid replication and transcription.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The different effects of antibiotics to cancers with different mechanisms. Pro-cancer (+). Anticancer (-). Up-regulated (⭡). Down-regulated (⭣).
Figure 3
Figure 3
The disadvantages of antibiotics in the treatment of diseases. The major aspects of disadvantages are cell resistance and obstruction of reproductive system.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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