Centre for Gut Microbiota Research, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China.
BMC Oral Health. 2019 Dec 5;19(1):275. doi: 10.1186/s12903-019-0956-5.
Microbial culture-based investigations of inflamed tonsil tissues have previously indicated enrichment of several microorganisms such as Streptococcus, Staphylococcus and Prevotella. These taxa were also largely reflected in DNA sequencing studies performed using tissue material. In comparison, less is known about the response of the overall oral cavity microbiota to acute tonsillitis despite their role in human health and evidence showing that their compositions are correlated with diseases such as oral cancers. In addition, the influence of subject-specific circumstances including consumption of prescription antibiotics and smoking habits on the microbiology of acute tonsillitis is unknown.
We collected oral rinse samples from 43 individuals admitted into hospital for acute tonsillitis and 165 non-disease volunteers recruited from the public, and compared their microbial community compositions using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. We assessed the impact of tonsillitis, whether subjects were prescribed antibiotics, the presence of oral abscesses and their smoking habits on community composition, and identified specific microbial taxa associated with tonsillitis and smoking.
Oral rinse community composition was primarily associated with disease state (tonsillitis vs non-tonsillitis) although its effect was subtle, followed by smoking habit. Multiple Prevotella taxa were enriched in tonsillitis subjects compared to the non-tonsillitis cohort, whereas the non-tonsillitis cohort primarily showed associations with several Neisseria sequence variants. The presence of oral abscesses did not significantly influence community composition. Antibiotics were prescribed to a subset of individuals in the tonsillitis cohort but we did not observe differences in community composition associated with antibiotics consumption. In both tonsillitis and non-tonsillitis cohorts, smoking habit was associated with enrichment of several Fusobacterium variants.
These findings show that the oral cavity microbial community is altered during acute tonsillitis, with a consistent enrichment of Prevotella during tonsillitis raising the possibility of targeted interventions. It also supports the possible link between smoking, Fusobacteria and oral cancers.
基于微生物培养的研究表明，发炎的扁桃体组织中存在多种微生物的富集，如链球菌、葡萄球菌和普雷沃菌。这些分类群也在使用组织材料进行的 DNA 测序研究中得到了广泛反映。相比之下，尽管口腔微生物群在人类健康中起着重要作用，并且有证据表明其组成与口腔癌等疾病相关，但人们对急性扁桃体炎对整个口腔微生物群的反应知之甚少。此外，还不清楚个体特定情况（包括使用处方抗生素和吸烟习惯）对急性扁桃体炎微生物学的影响。
我们从因急性扁桃体炎住院的 43 名个体和从公众中招募的 165 名非疾病志愿者中收集了口腔冲洗样本，并使用 16S rRNA 基因测序比较了他们的微生物群落组成。我们评估了扁桃体炎、是否给患者开了抗生素、是否存在口腔脓肿以及他们的吸烟习惯对群落组成的影响，并确定了与扁桃体炎和吸烟相关的特定微生物分类群。
口腔冲洗群落组成主要与疾病状态（扁桃体炎与非扁桃体炎）相关，尽管其影响很小，其次是吸烟习惯。与非扁桃体炎队列相比，扁桃体炎患者中多个普雷沃菌分类群富集，而非扁桃体炎队列主要与几个奈瑟菌序列变体相关。口腔脓肿的存在并没有显著影响群落组成。抗生素被开给了扁桃体炎患者队列中的一部分个体，但我们没有观察到抗生素使用与群落组成相关的差异。在扁桃体炎和非扁桃体炎队列中，吸烟习惯与几种梭杆菌变体的富集相关。
这些发现表明，急性扁桃体炎期间口腔微生物群落发生了改变，扁桃体炎期间普雷沃菌的一致富集提出了靶向干预的可能性。它还支持了吸烟、梭杆菌和口腔癌之间的可能联系。
