Description
- Abstract:
- The oral cavity is home to the second-largest microbiome in the human body. Its size is partly due to the large surface area, and multi-compartmentalization of the oral cavity. Oral microorganisms are often the intermediaries between illness and health. Fluctuations in the number of microbial species can trigger immune response locally and distally through microbial translocation. For example, Neisseria and P. gingivalis are pathogens of interest, linked to several oral cancers and Alzheimer’s disease respectively. Alcohol and tobacco consumption has proven to be a driving force towards this problem. Prior research has shown that chronic alcohol use has deleterious effects on the species richness and evenness of an oral community. Despite the growing popularity of this field, there is conflicting data on exactly how alcohol consumption and tobacco use shape, or rather reshape, the oral microbiome. This study aims to characterize the oral microbiome of young, orally healthy individuals who differ on drinking status (light/ heavy) and smoking status (smoker/non-smoker). In particular, relative abundances of Neisseria and P. gingivalis within those groups will be compared. This study included 24 participants (12 light drinkers, 12 heavy drinkers; 6 smokers, 18 non-smokers) with a median age of 22 from a National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)-funded alcohol administration study, conducted at Brown University. DNA was extracted form saliva samples and sequenced using 16S rRNA sequencing. 14 Phyla, 151 genera and 109 species were identified. Light and heavy drinkers did not differ significantly in alpha diversity (Shannon evenness index) but did on beta diversity (Bray-Curtis Dissimilarity). Smoking groups did not differ in alpha or beta diversity. Neisseria trended higher in heavy drinkers and non-smokers. P. gingivalis was not detected in any of the samples. In light of this, the three most abundant species in both drinking groups (Prevotella melaninogencia, Haemophilus parainfluenzae and Rothia mucilaginosa) were statistically tested. Only Haemophilus parainfluenzae was statistically more abundant in non-smokers compared to non-smokers. Overall, oral microbiomes for healthy young adults were successfully characterized, even though differences on the basis of drinking and smoking were generally insignificant.
- Notes:
- Thesis (Sc. M.)--Brown University, 2021
Citation
Ward, Gyles,
"The Effect of Alcohol and Tobacco Consumption on the Microbial Composition of the Oral Microbiome"
(2021).
Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biotechnology Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:hayzh8aa/
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Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biotechnology Theses and Dissertations
Theses and Dissertations for the Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biotechnology department....