Pan Ting, Ren YuJia, Li JingYi, Liao Ying, Xing XiangHui
Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Nanjing Stomatological Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Medical School, Research Institute of Stomatology, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China.
PeerJ. 2025 May 6;13:e19399. doi: 10.7717/peerj.19399. eCollection 2025.
Early childhood caries (ECC) has been proposed to be associated with various microorganisms and metabolites. This study aims to compare the prevalence of specific microbial species and salivary metabolomics profile in children with and without ECC, and to explore the correlation between salivary metabolites and targeted microbes.
Five ml of unstimulated saliva was collected from 32 ECC and 22 caries-free children. Clinical indexed were recorded and questionnaires regarding oral health and dietary habits were obtained from the guardians. The presence of eight specific microbial species were examined using species-specific quantitative PCR (qPCR). Untargeted metabolomics was analyzed to identify key differential metabolites and pathways. Correlations among clinical, microbial, and metabolomic data were further explored.
The prevalence of (90.6%, < 0.001), (43.8%, = 0.006), (62.5%, < 0.001), (93.6%, = 0.01) and (56.3%, < 0.001) were significantly higher in the ECC group. The prevalence of ECC was higher in children with two targeted species present compared with children with one targeted species. Histidine metabolism and branched-chain amino acids degradation were activated in ECC group, while glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism, purine and pyrimidine metabolism were inhibited. Histidine and glutathione metabolism was activated with enrichment of targeted microbial species, while linoleic acid metabolism and biotin metabolism was inhibited. The duration of each toothbrushing was a significant risk factor for ECC experience.
The prevalence of and is higher in ECC children compared to caries-free children. Oral habits and salivary metabolites also vary between ECC and caries-free children.
幼儿龋齿（ECC）被认为与多种微生物和代谢产物有关。本研究旨在比较患ECC和未患ECC儿童中特定微生物种类的患病率及唾液代谢组学特征，并探讨唾液代谢产物与目标微生物之间的相关性。
从32名患ECC儿童和22名无龋儿童中收集5毫升非刺激性唾液。记录临床指标，并从监护人处获取有关口腔健康和饮食习惯的问卷。使用物种特异性定量PCR（qPCR）检测8种特定微生物种类的存在情况。进行非靶向代谢组学分析以鉴定关键差异代谢产物和代谢途径。进一步探讨临床、微生物和代谢组学数据之间的相关性。
ECC组中（90.6%，<0.001）、（43.8%，=0.006）、（62.5%，<0.001）、（93.6%，=0.01）和（56.3%，<0.001）的患病率显著更高。与存在一种目标微生物种类的儿童相比，存在两种目标微生物种类的儿童中ECC的患病率更高。ECC组中组氨酸代谢和支链氨基酸降解被激活，而乙醛酸和二羧酸代谢、嘌呤和嘧啶代谢受到抑制。随着目标微生物种类的富集，组氨酸和谷胱甘肽代谢被激活，而亚油酸代谢和生物素代谢受到抑制。每次刷牙的时长是患ECC经历的一个显著危险因素。
与无龋儿童相比，ECC儿童中 和 的患病率更高。ECC儿童和无龋儿童之间的口腔习惯和唾液代谢产物也有所不同。
