F. nucleatum infection can induce expression of the antimicrobial peptide β-defensin 2 and high-mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1) (Bui et al., 2016), which can result in increased proliferation and modulated autophagy in ESCC cell lines (Di et al., 2019). This evidence concerns the gene HMGB1 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.