BioProject

Background: Periodontitis is a microbial-induced chronic inflammatory disease, which may not only result in tooth loss, but can also contribute to the development of various systemic diseases. More...

Background: Periodontitis is a microbial-induced chronic inflammatory disease, which may not only result in tooth loss, but can also contribute to the development of various systemic diseases. The transition from healthy to diseased periodontium depends on microbial dysbiosis and host immune response. Although periodontitis is a common disease and been associated with systemic diseases, the taxonomic profiling of the salivary microbiota in periodontitis and its association with host immune and inflammatory responses has not been clarified. The aim of this study was therefore to identify key pathogens and their association with the host’s immune and inflammatory mediators in saliva samples for periodontitis risk assessment. We sequenced 16S ribosomal RNA genes from stimulated saliva samples from 46 patients with periodontitis and 47 healthy controls. In addition, the levels of inflammatory mediators were determined in the same saliva samples and correlations between the microbiota and mediators were analyzed.Results: The salivary microbial community composition differed significantly between patients with periodontitis and healthy controls. Our analyses identified a number of microbes, including bacteria assigned to Prevotella sp., Phocaeicola sp., Fretibacterium sp., Streptococcus mitis/parasanguinis, Eubacterium saphenum, Tannerella forsythia, Filifactor alocis, and Parvinomas micra as more abundant in periodontitis, compared to healthy controls. In samples from healthy individuals, we identified Campylobacter concisus and Veillonella sp. as more abundant. Integrative analysis of the microbiota and inflammatory mediators/cytokines revealed associations that included positive correlations between the pathogen Selenomas sp. and the cytokines chitinase 3-like 1, sIL-6Ra, sTNF-R1, and gp130/sIL-6Rβ, as well as between Treponema sp. and gp130/sIL-6Rβ. In addition, a negative correlation was identified between IL-10 and Filifactor alocis. Conclusions: Our results reveal distinct and disease-specific patterns of microbial composition between saliva samples from patients with periodontitis and healthy controls, as well as significant correlations between microbiota and host inflammatory mediators. Moreover, we report increased abundance of the pathogens Prevotella sp., Phocaeicola sp., Fretibacterium sp., Streptococcus mitis/parasanguinis, Eubacterium saphenum, Tannerella forsythia, Filifactor alocis and Parvimonas micra, suggesting that the above-mentioned microbiota may have the potential to serve as salivary biomarker panel for early detection of the chronic infectious disease periodontitis. Less...