Oral microbiota associated with radiation-related caries among nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients following radiation therapy: analysis based on a longitudinal study.
Source: PubMed, NCBI / U.S. National Library of Medicine
The study aimed to characterize the oral microbiota of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) before and after radiotherapy (RT), and to compare the differences in microbiota between patients with and without radiation-related caries (RRC). Saliva and tongue swab samples were collected from 29 NPC patients pre-RT (baseline) and 3-9 months post-RT. Patients were categorized into the RRC group (those who developed new radiation-related caries post-RT) or the non-RRC group (those without new caries) based on clinical diagnosis. Oral microbiota composition was assessed via 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PerMANOVA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) effect size (LEfSe) were used to compare the oral microbiota composition before and after RT and between patients with and without RRC after RT. There were no significant differences in alpha diversity between patients before and after RT, nor between the RRC and non-RRC groups after RT. The beta diversity analyses detected significant differences on post-RT saliva samples between the RRC and non-RRC groups (R = 0.062, F = 1.720, P = 0.005). There were also significant differences in the beta diversity of both saliva samples (R = 0.099, F = 2.192, P = 0.001) and tongue swab samples (R = 0.118, F = 2.671, P = 0.002) before and after RT in the RRC grou
Abstract
The study aimed to characterize the oral microbiota of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) before and after radiotherapy (RT), and to compare the differences in microbiota between patients with and without radiation-related caries (RRC). Saliva and tongue swab samples were collected from 29 NPC patients pre-RT (baseline) and 3-9 months post-RT. Patients were categorized into the RRC group (those who developed new radiation-related caries post-RT) or the non-RRC group (those without new caries) based on clinical diagnosis. Oral microbiota composition was assessed via 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The permutational multivariate analysis of variance (PerMANOVA) and linear discriminant analysis (LDA) effect size (LEfSe) were used to compare the oral microbiota composition before and after RT and between patients with and without RRC after RT. There were no significant differences in alpha diversity between patients before and after RT, nor between the RRC and non-RRC groups after RT. The beta diversity analyses detected significant differences on post-RT saliva samples between the RRC and non-RRC groups (R = 0.062, F = 1.720, P = 0.005). There were also significant differences in the beta diversity of both saliva samples (R = 0.099, F = 2.192, P = 0.001) and tongue swab samples (R = 0.118, F = 2.671, P = 0.002) before and after RT in the RRC group, as well as in saliva (R = 0.062, F = 2.183, P = 0.005) and tongue swab (R = 0.099, F = 3.639, P = 0.001) samples in the non-RRC group. The LEfSe analysis showed no substantial difference when comparing microbiota composition of saliva and tongue swab samples between RRC and non-RRC groups before RT. However, an enrichment of Streptococcus mutans and Ligilactobacillus salivarius was detected post-RT in both the salivary and tongue swab samples of the RRC group. RT was associated with significantly altered oral microbiota composition of NPC patients, while RRC was associated with tooth decay related microbiota enrichment after RT.