Wei Kaitong, Ma Yaqing, Xu Jing, Hu Shuijuan, Zheng Hongyu, Liu Yuelian, Sun Qiang
Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, China.
Department of Oral Cell Biology, Academic Center for Dentistry Amsterdam (ACTA), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Front Immunol. 2025 May 21;16:1572152. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1572152. eCollection 2025.
The aim of this study was to analyze the changes in the oral microbiota of patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) compared to healthy controls and the effect of intratumoral microorganisms on the host immune microenvironment.
Saliva samples were collected from 36 OSCC patients and 34 healthy controls. 16S rDNA sequencing and bioinformatics analysis were conducted on the saliva samples. Differential expression, pathway enrichment, and tumor microenvironment analyses were performed on transcriptome data from head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database and OSCC patients in the GEO database.
Oral microbiota exhibited comparable α diversity but distinct β diversity between OSCC patients and healthy controls. , , and were significantly enriched in the OSCC group. Pathway analysis revealed dysregulation of metabolic pathways, including arginine and proline metabolism and sulfur transfer systems, in the OSCC group. The presence of microorganisms activated immune responses within tumor tissues, and immune scores increased with disease progression. Changes in the abundance of tumor immune-related signaling pathways were significantly associated with patient survival.
Specific oral microbiota in OSCC patients may serve as biomarkers for distinguishing OSCC. The interaction between microorganisms and the host alters the tumor immune microenvironment, which provides a theoretical basis for OSCC immunotherapy.
本研究旨在分析口腔鳞状细胞癌（OSCC）患者与健康对照者口腔微生物群的变化，以及肿瘤内微生物对宿主免疫微环境的影响。
收集36例OSCC患者和34例健康对照者的唾液样本。对唾液样本进行16S rDNA测序和生物信息学分析。对癌症基因组图谱（TCGA）数据库中的头颈部鳞状细胞癌（HNSCC）和GEO数据库中的OSCC患者的转录组数据进行差异表达、通路富集和肿瘤微环境分析。
OSCC患者与健康对照者的口腔微生物群α多样性相当，但β多样性不同。 、 和 在OSCC组中显著富集。通路分析显示OSCC组中代谢通路失调，包括精氨酸和脯氨酸代谢以及硫转移系统。微生物的存在激活了肿瘤组织内的免疫反应，免疫评分随疾病进展而增加。肿瘤免疫相关信号通路丰度的变化与患者生存显著相关。
OSCC患者特定的口腔微生物群可能作为区分OSCC的生物标志物。微生物与宿主之间的相互作用改变了肿瘤免疫微环境，为OSCC免疫治疗提供了理论依据。
