Abstract
Oral microbiota is constantly changing with the host state, whereas the oral microbiome of chronic erythematous candidiasis remains poorly understood. The aim of this study was to compare oral microbial signatures and functional profiling between chronic erythematous candidiasis and healthy subjects. Using shotgun metagenomic sequencing, we analyzed the microbiome in 12 chronic erythematous candidiasis, 12 healthy subjects, and 2 chronic erythematous candidiasis cured by antifungal therapy. We found that the salivary microbiota of chronic erythematous candidiasis was significantly different from that of healthy subjects. Among them, Rothia mucilaginosa and Streptococcus mitis were the most abundant disease-enriched species (Mann-Whitney U-test, P < 0.05). In addition, co-occurrence network analysis showed that C. albicans formed densely connected modules with oral bacterial species and was mainly positive connected to Streptococcus species. Furthermore, we investigated the functional potentials of the microbiome and identified a set of microbial marker genes associated with chronic erythematous candidiasis. Some of these genes enriching in chronic erythematous candidiasis are involved in eukaryotic ribosome, putative glutamine transport system, and cytochrome bc1 complex respiratory unit. Altogether, this study revealed the changes of oral microbial composition, the co-occurrence between C. albicans and oral bacteria, as well as the changes of microbial marker genes during chronic erythematous candidiasis, which provides evidence of oral microbiome as a target for the treatment and prevention of chronic erythematous candidiasis.
Highlights
Oral microbiota is a reflection of the host state and plays an important role in the development of various diseases
We carried out shotgun metagenomic sequencing of 26 salivary samples, including 12 from healthy subjects (HC group), 12 from chronic erythematous candidiasis patients (DIS group), and 2 from chronic erythematous candidiasis patients cured by antifungal therapy
The Human Microbiome Project (HMP) has been carried out over ten years, and it was found that the complex and common host–microbiome interactions play an important role in the health and various diseases of human (Proctor et al, 2019)
Summary
Oral microbiota is a reflection of the host state and plays an important role in the development of various diseases. Previous studies have shown us the profiling of human oral microbiota in many oral diseases, such as periodontitis, dental caries, and oral squamous cell carcinoma with the use of 16S rRNA sequence analysis or shotgun whole-genome metagenomic methods (Li et al, 2014; Baker et al, 2021; Sarkar et al, 2021). There remains some diseases which are well worth exploring from the perspective of oral microbiota. Chronic erythematous candidiasis is the most common type of Oral candidiasis (Oral candidosis, OC) (Hu et al, 2020), which is the most common opportunistic fungal disease occurring in oral cavity. A variety of local and systemic factors can lead to the overgrowth of C. albicans on oral mucosa, and make it from commensal to pathogenic (Millsop and Fazel, 2016)
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