title: Untangling the fiber yarn: butyrate feeds Warburg to suppress colorectal cancer.
abstract: Dietary composition has an important role in shaping the gut microbiota. In turn, changes in the diet directly impinge on bacterial metabolites present in the intestinal lumen. Whether such metabolites play a role in intestinal cancer has been a topic of hot debate. In this issue of Cancer Discovery, Donohoe and colleagues show that dietary fiber protects against colorectal carcinoma in a microbiota-dependent manner. Furthermore, fiber-derived butyrate acts as a histone deacetylase inhibitor, inhibiting cell proliferation and inducing apoptosis in colorectal cancer cells experiencing the Warburg effect.
authors.affiliation: The Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sebastián
authors.affiliation: The Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. rmostoslavsky@mgh.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Raul
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mostoslavsky
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002087:Butyrates / Q000378:metabolism*; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000209:etiology*; D004043:Dietary Fiber; D005856:Germ-Free Life; D006801:Humans; D064307:Microbiota
chemical_list: D002087:Butyrates; D004043:Dietary Fiber