Integrating next-generation sequencing and traditional tongue diagnosis to determine tongue coating microbiome

Abstract

Tongue diagnosis is a unique method in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). This is the first investigation on the association between traditional tongue diagnosis and the tongue coating microbiome using next-generation sequencing. The study included 19 gastritis patients with a typical white-greasy or yellow-dense tongue coating corresponding to TCM Cold or Hot Syndrome respectively, as well as eight healthy volunteers. An Illumina paired-end, double-barcode 16S rRNA sequencing protocol was designed to profile the tongue-coating microbiome, from which approximately 3.7 million V6 tags for each sample were obtained. We identified 123 and 258 species-level OTUs that were enriched in patients with Cold/Hot Syndromes, respectively, representing "Cold Microbiota" and "Hot Microbiota". We further constructed the tongue microbiota-imbalanced networks associated with Cold/Hot Syndromes. The results reveal an important connection between the tongue-coating microbiome and traditional tongue diagnosis, and illustrate the potential of the tongue-coating microbiome as a novel holistic biomarker for characterizing patient subtypes.

Could gut microbiota serve as prognostic biomarker associated with colorectal cancer patients' survival? A pilot study on relevant mechanism

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Rheumatoid Arthritis with Deficiency Pattern in Traditional Chinese Medicine Shows Correlation with Cold and Hot Patterns in Gene Expression Profiles

“…MAPK signaling, Wnt signaling, and insulin signaling pathways were revealed to be related to TCM hot pattern; purine metabolism was related to both TCM hot and cold patterns; alanine, aspartate, and tyrosine metabolisms were related to TCM cold pattern, and histidine metabolism and lysine degradation were related to TCM hot pattern [15]. Interestingly, other studies also detected the functions of general cold/hot pattern-related genes [16, 17], and in some specific diseases, such as gastritis [18], further found the imbalanced network biomarkers for traditional Chinese medicine syndrome in gastritis patients [19]. These results indicated that different pattern could be regarded as a consequence of biological networks comprising hundreds of thousands of gene expressions changed in various affected tissues and immune effector cells; thus, the functional gene network analysis might be a useful tool in exploring the biological fundamentals of pattern classification in RA.…”

Multivariate Analysis as a Method for Evaluating the Conceptual Perceptions of Korean Medicine Students regarding Phlegm Pattern

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