Project description:Background. Hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is a potentially curative therapy for a wide range of pediatric malignant and nonmalignant diseases. However, complications, including blood stream infection (BSI) remain a major cause of morbidity and mortality. While certain bacteria that are abundant in the oral microbiome, such as S. mitis, can cause BSI, the role of the oral microbial community in the etiology of BSI is not well understood. The finding that the use of xylitol wipes, which specifically targets the cariogenic bacteria S. mutans is associated with reduced BSI in pediatric patients, lead us to investigate dental caries as a risk factor for BSI. Methods. A total of 41 pediatric patients admitted for allogenic or autologous HCT, age 8 months to 25 years, were enrolled. Subjects with high dental caries risk were identified as those who had dental restorations completed within 2 months of admission for transplant, or who had untreated decay. Fisher’s exact test was used to determine if there was a significant association between caries risk and BSI. Dental plaque and saliva were collected on a cotton swab from a subset of 4 high caries risk (HCR) and 4 low caries risk (LCR) children following pretransplant conditioning. 16SrRNA sequencing was used to compare the microbiome of HCR and LCR subjects and to identify microbes that were significantly different between the 2 groups. Results. There was a statistically significant association between caries risk and BSI (p<0.035) (Fisher’s exact test). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed children in the high dental caries risk group were 21.39 times more likely to have BSI, with no significant effect of age or mucositis severity. HCR subjects showed significantly reduced microbial alpha diversity as compared to LCR subjects. LEfse metagenomic analyses, showed the oral microbiome in HCR children enriched in order Lactobacillales. This order includes Streptococcus and Lactobacillus, both which contain bacteria primarily associated with dental caries. Discussion. These findings support the possibility that the cariogenic microbiome can enhance the risk of BSI in pediatric populations. Future metagenomic analyses to measure microbial differences at, before, and after conditioning related to caries risk, may further unravel the complex relationship between the oral microbiome, and whether it affects health outcomes such as BSI.
2022-04-05 | GSE199991 | GEO
Project description:A prospective study on the effect of caries management on oral microbial diversity in patients with rampant caries
Project description:Childhood caries is an extremely common childhood chronic disease, affecting 60–90% of children in industrialized countries. It results in lesions in both the primary and permanent dentitions, hospitalizations and emergency room visits, high treatment costs, loss of school days, diminished ability to learn increases the risk of caries in adulthood. Streptococcus mutans is a key bacteria in caries development. While multiple caries risk factors have been identified, significant interpersonal variability not explained by known risk factors still exists. The immune system generates a personal antibody repertoire that helps maintain a balanced and healthy oral microbiome. Using mass-spectrometry, we probed in an hypothesis-free manner which S. mutans proteins are identified by antibodies of children with low and high DMFT (decayed, missing, filled teeth) scores. We identified a core set of proteins, recognized by the immune system of most individuals. This set was enriched with proteins enabling bacterial adhesion, and included glucosyltransferases and glucan-binding proteins known to be important for S. mutans cariogenicity. To explore the physiological relevance of these findings, we tested the ability of saliva from caries free individuals in preventing S. mutans from binding to the tooth surface. Indeed, saliva from individuals with caries free prevented S. mutans binding to teeth. These findings map the S. mutans proteome targeted by the immune system and suggest that inhibiting tooth attachment is a primary mechanism used by the immune system to maintain oral balance and prevent caries. These findings provide new insights into the role of the immune system in maintaining oral health and preventing caries development.
Project description:The composition of the salivary microbiota has been reported to differentiate between patients with periodontitis, dental caries and orally healthy individuals. Thus, the purpose of the present investigation was to compare metaproteomic profiles of saliva in oral health and disease. Stimulated saliva samples were collected from 10 patients with periodontitis, 10 patients with dental caries and 10 orally healthy individuals. Samples were analyzed by means of shotgun proteomics. 4161 different proteins were recorded out of which 1946 and 2090 were of bacterial and human origin respectively. The human proteomic profile displayed significant overexpression of the complement system and inflammatory mediators in periodontitis and dental caries. Bacterial proteomic profiles and functional annotation were very similar in health and disease. Data revealed multiple potential salivary proteomic biomarkers of oral disease. In addition, comparable bacterial functional profiles were observed in periodontitis, dental caries and oral health, which suggest that the salivary microbiota predominantly thrives in a planktonic state expressing no characteristic disease-associated metabolic activity. Future large-scale longitudinal studies are warranted to reveal the full potential of proteomic analysis of saliva as a biomarker of oral health and disease.
Project description:Kynureninase is a member of a large family of catalytically diverse but structurally homologous pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) dependent enzymes known as the aspartate aminotransferase superfamily or alpha-family. The Homo sapiens and other eukaryotic constitutive kynureninases preferentially catalyze the hydrolytic cleavage of 3-hydroxy-l-kynurenine to produce 3-hydroxyanthranilate and l-alanine, while l-kynurenine is the substrate of many prokaryotic inducible kynureninases. The human enzyme was cloned with an N-terminal hexahistidine tag, expressed, and purified from a bacterial expression system using Ni metal ion affinity chromatography. Kinetic characterization of the recombinant enzyme reveals classic Michaelis-Menten behavior, with a Km of 28.3 +/- 1.9 microM and a specific activity of 1.75 micromol min-1 mg-1 for 3-hydroxy-dl-kynurenine. Crystals of recombinant kynureninase that diffracted to 2.0 A were obtained, and the atomic structure of the PLP-bound holoenzyme was determined by molecular replacement using the Pseudomonas fluorescens kynureninase structure (PDB entry 1qz9) as the phasing model. A structural superposition with the P. fluorescens kynureninase revealed that these two structures resemble the "open" and "closed" conformations of aspartate aminotransferase. The comparison illustrates the dynamic nature of these proteins' small domains and reveals a role for Arg-434 similar to its role in other AAT alpha-family members. Docking of 3-hydroxy-l-kynurenine into the human kynureninase active site suggests that Asn-333 and His-102 are involved in substrate binding and molecular discrimination between inducible and constitutive kynureninase substrates.
Project description:The composition of the salivary microbiota has been reported to differentiate between patients with periodontitis, dental caries and orally healthy individuals. Thus, the purpose of the present investigation was to compare metaproteomic profiles of saliva in oral health and disease. Stimulated saliva samples were collected from 10 patients with periodontitis, 10 patients with dental caries and 10 orally healthy individuals. Samples were analyzed by means of shotgun proteomics. 4161 different proteins were recorded out of which 1946 and 2090 were of bacterial and human origin respectively. The human proteomic profile displayed significant overexpression of the complement system and inflammatory mediators in periodontitis and dental caries. Bacterial proteomic profiles and functional annotation were very similar in health and disease. Data revealed multiple potential salivary proteomic biomarkers of oral disease. In addition, comparable bacterial functional profiles were observed in periodontitis, dental caries and oral health, which suggest that the salivary microbiota predominantly thrives in a planktonic state expressing no characteristic disease-associated metabolic activity. Future large-scale longitudinal studies are warranted to reveal the full potential of proteomic analysis of saliva as a biomarker of oral health and disease.
Project description:As the evolution of miRNA genes has been found to be one of the important factors in formation of the modern type of man, we performed a comparative analysis of the evolution of miRNA genes in two archaic hominines, Homo sapiens neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens denisova, and elucidated the expression of their target mRNAs in bain.A comparative analysis of the genomes of primates, including species in the genus Homo, identified a group of miRNA genes having fixed substitutions with important implications for the evolution of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens denisova. The mRNAs targeted by miRNAs with mutations specific for Homo sapiens denisova exhibited enhanced expression during postnatal brain development in modern humans. By contrast, the expression of mRNAs targeted by miRNAs bearing variations specific for Homo sapiens neanderthalensis was shown to be enhanced in prenatal brain development.Our results highlight the importance of changes in miRNA gene sequences in the course of Homo sapiens denisova and Homo sapiens neanderthalensis evolution. The genetic alterations of miRNAs regulating the spatiotemporal expression of multiple genes in the prenatal and postnatal brain may contribute to the progressive evolution of brain function, which is consistent with the observations of fine technical and typological properties of tools and decorative items reported from archaeological Denisovan sites. The data also suggest that differential spatial-temporal regulation of gene products promoted by the subspecies-specific mutations in the miRNA genes might have occurred in the brains of Homo sapiens denisova and Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, potentially contributing to the cultural differences between these two archaic hominines.
Project description:PurposeWe investigated the evidence of recent positive selection in the human phototransduction system at single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and gene level.MethodsSNP genotyping data from the International HapMap Project for European, Eastern Asian, and African populations was used to discover differences in haplotype length and allele frequency between these populations. Numeric selection metrics were computed for each SNP and aggregated into gene-level metrics to measure evidence of recent positive selection. The level of recent positive selection in phototransduction genes was evaluated and compared to a set of genes shown previously to be under recent selection, and a set of highly conserved genes as positive and negative controls, respectively.ResultsSix of 20 phototransduction genes evaluated had gene-level selection metrics above the 90th percentile: RGS9, GNB1, RHO, PDE6G, GNAT1, and SLC24A1. The selection signal across these genes was found to be of similar magnitude to the positive control genes and much greater than the negative control genes.ConclusionsThere is evidence for selective pressure in the genes involved in retinal phototransduction, and traces of this selective pressure can be demonstrated using SNP-level and gene-level metrics of allelic variation. We hypothesize that the selective pressure on these genes was related to their role in low light vision and retinal adaptation to ambient light changes. Uncovering the underlying genetics of evolutionary adaptations in phototransduction not only allows greater understanding of vision and visual diseases, but also the development of patient-specific diagnostic and intervention strategies.