Oral Microbiota Distinguishes Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Pediatric Hosts from Healthy Populations

Abstract

In leukemia, oral manifestations indicate aberrations in oral microbiota. Microbiota structure is determined by both host and environmental factors. In human hosts, how health status shapes the composition of oral microbiota is largely unknown. Taking advantage of advances in high-throughput sequencing, we compared the composition of supragingival plaque microbiota of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) pediatric patients with healthy controls. The oral microbiota of leukemia patients had lower richness and less diversity compared to healthy controls. Microbial samples clustered into two major groups, one of ALL patients and another of healthy children, with different structure and composition. Abundance changes of certain taxa including the Phylum Firmicutes, the Class Bacilli, the Order Lactobacillales, the Family Aerococcaceae and Carnobacteriaceae, as well as the Genus Abiotrophia and Granulicatella were associated with leukemia status. ALL patients demonstrated a structural imbalance of the oral microbiota, characterized by reduced diversity and abundance alterations, possibly involved in systemic infections, indicating the importance of immune status in shaping the structure of oral microbiota.

The role of the gastrointestinal microbiome in infectious complications during induction chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia

“…However, increasing antimicrobial resistance compromises the efficacy of universal prophylaxis, indicating that more personalized medicine approaches are needed to optimize infection prevention and treatment . Moreover, there are minimal data regarding the oral microbiome in treated cancer patients . Because of the paucity of microbiome data in this clinical scenario, investigations of both the oral and stool microbiome are potentially valuable, because both sites serve as portals of infection in immunocompromised patients .…”

Salivary microbiome of an urban Indian cohort and patterns linked to subclinical inflammation

“…Abiotrophia associated with leukemic status and indicated dysbiosis related to perturbed immune status (Wang et al, 2014a(Wang et al, , 2014b. Our finding of salivary Abiotrophia association with high IL-1β could imply similar dysbiotic patterns.…”

“…Shifts from short‐chain fatty acid producers to lactate producer overgrowth are linked to skewed mucosal homeostasis. Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria species overgrowth has previously been related to lowered abundance of butyrate producing groups in inflammatory bowel disease (Wang et al, , ) and Scardovia , Bifidobacteriaceae, and Lactobacillaceae species associated with increased caries (Henne et al., ; de Steenhuijsen Piters, Sanders & Bogaert, ). An OTU‐representing Lactobacillus fermentum (Human Oral Taxon 608) was positively correlated with salivary interleukin‐1 beta.…”

“…Abiotrophia , a common oral genus earlier grouped under “nutritionally variant Streptococci ” is implicated in bacteremia and invasive infections (Senn et al., ; Yacoub et al., ). In the oral niche, supragingival Abiotrophia associated with leukemic status and indicated dysbiosis related to perturbed immune status (Wang et al, , ). Our finding of salivary Abiotrophia association with high IL‐1β could imply similar dysbiotic patterns.…”

“…Bifidobacteria species overgrowth has previously been related to lowered abundance of butyrate producing groups in inflammatory bowel disease (Wang et al, 2014a(Wang et al, , 2014b and Scardovia, Bifidobacteriaceae,…”