Exploration of Targeted Anti-tumor Therapy

Table 1. Summary of plant-derived prebiotics and their effects on the growth of beneficial gut microbiota contributing to melanoma immunomodulation.

Prebiotic	Plant sources	Beneficial bacteria stimulated	Immune response/prebiotic effect	Source
Castalagin	Camu camu berry (Myrciaria dubia)	Alistipes, Bifidobacterium spp., Ruminococcaceae	Boosts CD8⁺, CD4⁺, and FOXP3⁺ T cell responses Enhances anti-PD-1 immunotherapy efficacy in melanoma	[45, 46, 48, 49]
Inulin	Chicory (Cichorium intybus), yacon (Polymnia sonchifolia), dried chamomile tea (C. recutita), dahlia (Dahlia pinnata), Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus)	Bifidobacterium adolescentis, Bifidobacterium longum, Bacteroides stercoris, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Lactobacillus spp.	Inhibits BRAF-mutant melanoma growth Enhances MEK inhibitor efficacy Protects the colon from LPS-induced oxidative damage and reduces harmful bacteria through SCFA production	[1, 40, 50, 51]
Galactooligosaccharides (GOS)	Non-fructosylated α-GOS purified from peas (Pisum sativum)	Bifidobacterium adolescentis, Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, Lactobacillus spp.	Induces mucin-glycan pathways Enhances SCFA production, strengthens the gut barrier, and boosts immune responses	[35, 40, 52–55]
Kale extract (KE) and lyophilized mushroom extract (LME)	KE from Brassica oleracea and LME from Pleurotus ostreatus	Akkermansia muciniphila, Bacteroides dorei, Bacteroides massiliensis, Bacteroides ovatus, Blautia producta, Blautia producta ASV, Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron	SCFA production (succinic, butyric acids specifically)	[63–65]
Konjac glucomannan (KGM)	Amorphophallus konjac (Konjac root vegetable)	Bifidobacterium adolescentis, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei	Enhances fermentability, boosting SCFA production Increases lymphocyte proliferation, NK cell activity, and cytokine secretion	[68–70]
Fructooligosaccharides (FOS)	Soybean, roots of yacon (Polymnia sonchifolia), and dried chamomile tea (C. recutita)	Lachnospiraceae spp., Lactobacillus spp.	Modulates metabolism Suppresses inflammation Strengthens tight junctions Enhances immune signaling through increased intracellular Ca²⁺ and kinase activity	[34, 35, 58, 59]

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SCFA: short-chain fatty acid; NK: natural killer.

Declarations

Author contributions

EK: Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. MK: Writing—review & editing. JB: Writing—review & editing. SNP: Conceptualization, Supervision, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing. All authors read and approved the submitted version.

Conflicts of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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