Oral microbiota distinguishes acute lymphoblastic leukemia pediatric hosts from healthy populations

PLoS One. 2014 Jul 15;9(7):e102116. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0102116. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

In leukemia, oral manifestations indicate aberrations in oral microbiota. Microbiota structure is determined by both host and environmental factors. In human hosts, how health status shapes the composition of oral microbiota is largely unknown. Taking advantage of advances in high-throughput sequencing, we compared the composition of supragingival plaque microbiota of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) pediatric patients with healthy controls. The oral microbiota of leukemia patients had lower richness and less diversity compared to healthy controls. Microbial samples clustered into two major groups, one of ALL patients and another of healthy children, with different structure and composition. Abundance changes of certain taxa including the Phylum Firmicutes, the Class Bacilli, the Order Lactobacillales, the Family Aerococcaceae and Carnobacteriaceae, as well as the Genus Abiotrophia and Granulicatella were associated with leukemia status. ALL patients demonstrated a structural imbalance of the oral microbiota, characterized by reduced diversity and abundance alterations, possibly involved in systemic infections, indicating the importance of immune status in shaping the structure of oral microbiota.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biodiversity
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Cluster Analysis
  • Female
  • Healthy Volunteers
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Metagenome
  • Microbiota*
  • Mouth / microbiology*
  • Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma*
  • Risk Factors

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the International S&T Cooperation Program of China (grant number: 2011DFA30940), the National Basic Research Program of China (“973 Pilot Research Program,” grant Number: 2011CB512108), the National Science & Technology Pillar Program during the 12th Five-year Plan Period (grant number: 2012BAI07B03), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number: 81200782) and Doctoral Fund of Ministry of Education of China (grant number: 20120181120002). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.