Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Central Floridagrid.170430.1, Orlando, Florida, USA.
Microbiol Spectr. 2022 Apr 27;10(2):e0242121. doi: 10.1128/spectrum.02421-21. Epub 2022 Apr 4.
E-cigarettes (e-cigs) have drastically increased in popularity during the last decade, especially among teenagers. While recent studies have started to explore the effect of e-cigs in the oral cavity, little is known about their effects on the oral microbiota and how they could affect oral health and potentially lead to disease, including periodontitis and head and neck cancers. To explore the impact of e-cigs on oral bacteria, we selected members of the genus Streptococcus, which are abundant in the oral cavity. We exposed the commensals Streptococcus sanguinis and Streptococcus gordonii and the opportunistic pathogen Streptococcus mutans, best known for causing dental caries, to e-liquids and e-cig aerosols with and without nicotine and with and without menthol flavoring and measured changes in growth patterns and biofilm formation. Our results demonstrate that e-cig aerosols hindered the growth of S. sanguinis and S. gordonii, while they did not affect the growth of S. mutans. We also show that e-cig aerosols significantly increased biofilm formation by S. mutans but did not affect the biofilm formation of the two commensals. We found that S. mutans exhibits higher hydrophobicity and coaggregation abilities along with higher attachment to OKF6 cells than S. sanguinis and S. gordonii. Therefore, our data suggest that e-cig aerosols have the potential to dysregulate oral bacterial homeostasis by suppressing the growth of commensals while enhancing the biofilm formation of the opportunistic pathogen S. mutans. This study highlights the importance of understanding the consequences of e-cig aerosol exposure on selected commensals and pathogenic species. Future studies modeling more complex communities will provide more insight into how e-cig aerosols and vaping affect the oral microbiota. Our study shows that e-cigarette aerosol exposure of selected bacteria known to be residents of the oral cavity hinders the growth of two streptococcal commensals while enhancing biofilm formation, hydrophobicity, and attachment for the pathogen S. mutans. These results indicate that e-cigarette vaping could open a niche for opportunistic bacteria such as S. mutans to colonize the oral cavity and affect oral health.
电子烟在过去十年中急剧普及，尤其是在青少年中。虽然最近的研究已经开始探索电子烟在口腔中的影响，但人们对它们对口腔微生物群的影响知之甚少，也不知道它们如何影响口腔健康并可能导致疾病，包括牙周炎和头颈部癌症。为了探索电子烟对口腔细菌的影响，我们选择了口腔中丰富的链球菌属成员。我们将共生链球菌（Streptococcus sanguinis）和戈登链球菌（Streptococcus gordonii）以及机会性病原体变异链球菌（Streptococcus mutans）暴露于含有和不含有尼古丁以及含有和不含有薄荷醇调味剂的电子烟液和电子烟气溶胶中，并测量了生长模式和生物膜形成的变化。我们的结果表明，电子烟气溶胶阻碍了 S. sanguinis 和 S. gordonii 的生长，而对 S. mutans 的生长没有影响。我们还表明，电子烟气溶胶显著增加了 S. mutans 的生物膜形成，但没有影响两种共生菌的生物膜形成。我们发现，与 S. sanguinis 和 S. gordonii 相比，S. mutans 表现出更高的疏水性和共聚集能力，以及更高的与 OKF6 细胞的附着能力。因此，我们的数据表明，电子烟气溶胶通过抑制共生菌的生长，同时增强机会性病原体 S. mutans 的生物膜形成，有可能扰乱口腔细菌的内稳态。本研究强调了了解电子烟气溶胶暴露对选定共生菌和病原种的后果的重要性。未来模拟更复杂群落的研究将提供更多关于电子烟气溶胶和蒸气如何影响口腔微生物群的见解。我们的研究表明，电子烟气溶胶暴露于已知是口腔居民的选定细菌会阻碍两种链球菌共生菌的生长，同时增强病原菌 S. mutans 的生物膜形成、疏水性和附着能力。这些结果表明，电子烟吸烟可能为机会性病原体（如 S. mutans）开辟一个小生境，使其在口腔中定植并影响口腔健康。
