Human oral microbiota is the ecological community of commensal, symbiotic, and pathogenic microorganisms found in the oral cavity. Oral microbiota generally exists in the form of a biofilm and plays a crucial role in maintaining oral homeostasis, protecting the oral cavity and preventing disease development. Human oral microbiota has recently become a new focus research for promoting the progress of disease diagnosis, assisting disease treatment, and developing personalised medicines. In this review, the scientific evidence supporting the association that endogenous and exogenous factors (diet, smoking, drinking, socioeconomic status, antibiotics use and pregnancy) modulate oral microbiota. It provides insights into the mechanistic role in which oral microbiota may influence systemic diseases, and summarises the challenges of clinical diagnosis and treatment based on the microbial community information. It provides information for noninvasive diagnosis and helps develop a new paradigm of personalised medicine. All these benefit human health in the post-metagenomics era.

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Microbiome modulators such as probiotics are known to modulate oral diseases. Very few probiotics are commercially available for use in the oral cavity. In this context, we selected human-origin Lactobacillus salivarius AR809 as a promising oropharyngeal probiotic and characterized its functional and immunomodulatory properties. Results demonstrated that AR809 could efficiently adhere to pharyngeal epithelial FaDu cells, antagonize Staphylococcus aureus, adapt to the oral environment, and modulate host innate immunity by inducing potentially protective effects. Particularly, AR809 diminished proinflammatory activity by enhancing the production of IL10 and inhibiting the expression of tumor necrosis factor-α, IL1B, inducible nitric oxide synthase, and RELA. Finally, we observed that AR809 grew efficiently when cultured in milk, suggesting that the preparation of a fermented milk product containing AR809 could be a practical way to administer this probiotic to humans. In conclusion, AR809 has high potential to adhere to the pharyngeal mucosa and could be applied in novel milk-based probiotic fermented food products.