Cigarette smoking and oral microbiota in low-income and African-American populations

Abstract

BackgroundCigarette smoking is a common risk factor for diseases and cancers. Oral microbiota is also associated with diseases and cancers. However, little is known about the impact of cigarette smoking on the oral microbiota, especially among ethnic minority populations.MethodsWe investigated cigarette smoking in relationship with the oral microbiota in a large population of predominately low-income and African-American participants. Mouth rinse samples were collected from 1616 participants within the Southern Community Cohort Study, including 592 current-smokers, 477 former-smokers and 547 never-smokers. Oral microbiota was profiled by 16S ribosomal RNA gene deep sequencing.ResultsCurrent-smokers showed a different overall microbial composition from former-smokers (p=6.62×10−7) and never-smokers (p=6.00×10−8). The two probiotic genera, Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus, were enriched among current-smokers when compared with never-smokers, with Bonferroni-corrected p values (PBonferroni) of 1.28×10−4 and 5.89×10−7, respectively. The phylum Actinobacteria was also enriched in current-smokers when compared with never-smokers, with a median relative abundance of 12.35% versus 9.36%, respectively, and with a PBonferroni=9.11×10−11. In contrast, the phylum Proteobacteria was depleted in current smokers (PBonferroni=5.57×10−13), with the relative abundance being almost three times that of never-smokers (7.22%) when compared with that of current-smokers (2.47%). Multiple taxa within these two phyla showed differences in abundance/prevalence between current-smokers and never-smokers at PBonferroni <0.05. The differences in the overall microbial composition and abundance/prevalence of most taxa were observed among both African-Americans and European-Americans. Meanwhile, such differences were not observed between former-smokers and never-smokers.ConclusionSmoking has strong impacts on oral microbial community, which was recovered after smoking cessation.

Trick or Treating in Forensics—The Challenge of the Saliva Microbiome: A Narrative Review

“…Furthermore, by comparing the within- and between-group distances, the never and former smokers turned out to be more alike than the current smokers, who appeared to be a more heterogeneous group, suggesting that smoking-related changes are not permanent and the bacteria depleted by cigarette smoking could be restored after quitting smoking. Similar results were obtained by Yang et al [ 32 ], who conducted a study on a large population of predominately low-income and African-American participants, including 592 current smokers, 477 former smokers, and 547 never-smokers. The authors, considering that the oral microbial composition of current smokers differed from former and never-smokers and that such differences were not observed between former smokers and never-smokers, concluded that the changes caused by the strong impact of smoking on oral microbial composition may be recovered after smoking cessation.…”

Revealing oral microbiota composition and functionality associated with heavy cigarette smoking

“…Furthermore, smoking contributes to the alteration in the oxygen tension of the oral and upper gastrointestinal microenvironment that encourages persistence of microaerophilic bacteria replacing the commensal beneficial species [ 12 , 13 ]. Previous studies have shown an increased prevalence of the genera Atopobium , Campylobacter , and Prevotella among smokers and selective depletion of certain phyla, including Proteobacteria [ 12 , 14 – 16 ]. Thus, tobacco smoking creates a unique dysbiotic environment in the oral cavity, influencing the microbiota composition with far-reaching consequences in the local and systemic health of the host [ 8 ].…”

Tongue microbiome of smokeless tobacco users

“…This is important in view of the increasing evidence indicating that compositional and functional disturbances in the oral microbiome (dysbiosis) may play a role in oral cancer [7,8]. In fact, few recent studies have shown that current smokers have a significantly altered oral microbiome compared to non-or former smokers [9,10], Furthermore, in a Syrian Golden hamster cheek pouch carcinogenesis model, 4-week application of ST was shown to significantly disrupted the oral microbiota [11]. How ST products affect the human oral microbiome, and whether that may play a role in their carcinogenicity has not been studied.…”