Microbial and inflammatory‐based salivary biomarkers of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients often present with poor oral health, making it difficult to assess the relationship between oral microbes, inflammation, and carcinoma. This study investigates salivary microbes and inflammatory cytokines as biomarkers for HNSCC, with consideration of oral health. Saliva was collected from 30 participants, including 14 HNSCC patients and 16 participants representing both dentally compromised and healthy individuals. Bacterial and fungal communities were analyzed based on 16S rRNA gene and ITS1 amplicon sequencing, respectively, and concentrations of inflammatory cytokines were quantified using a cytometric bead array, with flow cytometry. Diversity‐based analyses revealed that the bacterial communities of HNSCC patients were significantly different to those of the healthy control group but not the dentally compromised patients. Fungal communities were dominated by Candida, irrespective of cohort, with Candida albicans comprising ≥96% of fungal sequences in most HNSCC patients. Significantly higher concentrations of interleukin (IL)‐1β and IL‐8 were detected in HNSCC and dentally compromised patients, when independently compared with healthy controls. IL‐1β and IL‐8 concentrations were significantly positively correlated with the abundance of C. albicans. Our findings suggest that salivary microbial and inflammatory biomarkers of HNSCC are influenced by oral health.

Randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of oral probiotic Streptococcus salivarius M18 on head and neck cancer patients post-radiotherapy: a pilot study

“…Based on bacterial network analyses, there may be motive to consider the use of BLIS M18 clinically. In the saliva network, ZOTU1_ S. salivarius positively interacted with other core microbiota, including Prevotella , Veillonella and several Streptococcus species but negatively interacted with Fusobacterium nucleatum , supporting previous observations that Streptococcus and Fusobacterium are negatively correlated in saliva 32 . In the plaque network, several negative interactions were detected between ZOTU1_ S .…”

“…The V3-V4 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene was amplified using Illumina-compatible primers S-D-Bact-0341-b-S-17 and S-D-Bact-0785-a-A-21 35 , as previously described 32 . Duplicate PCR reactions were pooled and purified for sequencing, as previously described 29 .…”

Salivary bacterial shifts in oral leukoplakia resemble the dysbiotic oral cancer bacteriome

“…The most significant discriminating genera between the LKP and oral cancer groups belonged to the following genera: Megaspheara, unclassified Enterobacteria, Prevotella, Porphyromonas, Granulicatella, and Salmonella. The increased presence of members of genus Granulicatella [24][25][26] and Porphyromonas [27,28] in oral cancer group is consistent with previous reports. More importantly, our data demonstrate that the tetrad of Salmonella, unclassified Enterobacteriae, Prevotella and Megasphaera were discriminative for LKP group and Megasphaera was abundant only in LKP group.…”

Association of oral dysbiosis with oral cancer development (Review)

“…Oral microbiota changes are able to modulate the connection between oral bacteria and humans causing diseases (21,22). Oral microbiota seems to influence OSCC through the carcinogenetic modulation of cell metabolism (such as modifying the concentration of nutrients and vitamins), thereby promoting the production of different cytokines known to be involved in several pathological conditions (23)(24)(25)(26)(27).…”