RNA Sequencing Reveals the Upregulation of FOXO Signaling Pathway in Persister-Treated Human Gingival Epithelial Cells.

as the keystone periodontopathogen plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of periodontitis, and crucially accounts for inflammatory comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer's disease. We recently identified the existence of persisters and revealed the unforeseen perturbation of innate response in human gingival epithelial cells (HGECs) due to these noxious persisters. Herein, RNA sequencing revealed how persisters affected the expression profile of cytokine genes and related signaling pathways in HGECs. Results showed that metronidazole-treated persisters (M-PgPs) impaired the innate host defense of HGECs, in a similar fashion to . Notably, over one thousand differentially expressed genes were identified in HGECs treated with M-PgPs or with reference to the controls. Gene Ontology and KEGG pathway analysis demonstrated significantly enriched signaling pathways, such as FOXO. Importantly, the FOXO1 inhibitor rescued the M-PgP-induced disruption of cytokine expression. This study suggests that persisters may perturb innate host defense, through the upregulation of the FOXO signaling pathway. Thus, the current findings could contribute to developing new approaches to tackling persisters for the effective control of periodontitis and -related inflammatory comorbidities.