Brucato Nicolas, Lisant Valentine, Kinipi Christopher, Kik Alfred, Besnard Guillaume, Leavesley Matthew, Ricaut François-Xavier
Centre de Recherche sur la Biodiversité et l'Environnement (CRBE), Université de Toulouse, CNRS, IRD, Toulouse INP, Université Toulouse 3 - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Toulouse, France.
Strand of Anthropology, Sociology and Archaeology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Papua New Guinea, PO Box 320, University 134, National Capital District, Papua New Guinea.
Evol Med Public Health. 2024 Nov 9;13(1):36-44. doi: 10.1093/emph/eoae030. eCollection 2025.
For thousands of years, betel nut has been used as a psychoactive agent in Asian and Oceanian populations. Betel nut chewing was associated with the alteration of human oral microbiome and with diseases such as oral cancer and periodontitis, but only in populations of Asian cultural background. We studied the influence of betel nut chewing on the oral microbiome in Papua New Guinea, where half of the population uses betel nut and the prevalence of these diseases is one of the highest in the world.
We characterized the oral microbiomes of 100 Papua New Guineans. We defined two cohorts of betel chewers ( = 50) and non-chewers ( = 50) based on a genetic approach to identify the presence of betel nut in saliva. We statistically compared the alpha and beta microbial diversities between the two cohorts. We performed linear discriminant analyses to identify bacterial species more prevalent in each cohort.
We found that oral microbial diversity is significantly different between betel chewers and non-chewers. The dysbiosis observed in betel chewers, led to an increase of pathogenic bacterial species including , and , known to be in the aetiology of periodontal diseases.
Our study strongly supports the alteration of human oral microbiome by betel nut use, potentially leading to periodontal diseases. It also shows the need to consider local specificities (e.g. different habits, betel nut types, and oral microbial diversities) to better characterize the impact of betel nut chewing on health.
数千年来，槟榔在亚洲和大洋洲人群中一直被用作一种精神活性物质。嚼槟榔与人类口腔微生物群的改变以及口腔癌和牙周炎等疾病有关，但仅在亚洲文化背景的人群中如此。我们研究了嚼槟榔对巴布亚新几内亚口腔微生物群的影响，该国一半人口使用槟榔，且这些疾病的患病率是世界上最高的之一。
我们对100名巴布亚新几内亚人的口腔微生物群进行了特征分析。我们基于一种基因方法来确定唾液中是否存在槟榔，从而定义了两个队列，即嚼槟榔者（n = 50）和不嚼槟榔者（n = 50）。我们对两个队列之间的α和β微生物多样性进行了统计学比较。我们进行了线性判别分析，以确定在每个队列中更普遍存在的细菌种类。
我们发现嚼槟榔者和不嚼槟榔者之间的口腔微生物多样性存在显著差异。在嚼槟榔者中观察到的生态失调，导致了包括已知与牙周疾病病因有关的[具体细菌种类未给出]等致病细菌种类的增加。
我们的研究有力地支持了使用槟榔会改变人类口腔微生物群，这可能导致牙周疾病。它还表明需要考虑当地的特殊性（例如不同的习惯、槟榔种类和口腔微生物多样性），以便更好地描述嚼槟榔对健康的影响。
