
26/04/2025
In an effort to explain a modern medical mystery, an international team of researchers led by the University of California San Diego has identified a potential microbial culprit behind the alarming rise in early-onset colorectal cancer: a bacterial toxin called colibactin.
Produced by certain strains of Escherichia coli that reside in the colon and re**um, colibactin is a toxin capable of altering DNA. Now, scientists report that exposure to colibactin in early childhood imprints a distinct genetic signature on the DNA of colon cellsβone that may increase the risk of developing colorectal cancer before the age of 50.