Volume 11 Issue 25 of @Oncotarget reported that the authors aimed to characterize the bacteriome, mycobiome, and mycobiome-bacteriome interactions of oral wash in Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, or HNSCC, patients and to determine if they are distinct from those of the oral wash of matched non-Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients.
Oral wash samples were collected from 46 individuals with HNSCC and 46 controls for microbiome analyses.
A number of organisms were identified as being differentially abundant between oral wash samples from patients with HNSCC and oral wash samples from those without HNSCC. Of note, strains of Candida albicans and Rothia mucilaginosa were differentially abundant and Schizophyllum commune was depleted in those with HNSCC compared to oral wash from those without HNSCC. Our results suggest that the oral cavity of HNSCC patients harbors unique differences in the mycobiome, bacteriome, and microbiome interactions when compared to those of control patients.
Dr. Charis Eng from The Cleveland Clinic as well as The Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine said, "Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) refers to cancer arising from the squamous epithelium of the oral cavity, pharynx, nasopharynx, and larynx."
Not all patients with these risk factors develop HNSCC, and some patients with HSNCC lack these risk factors.
There is, therefore, a need to identify additional risk factors to better predict which patients, particularly among those at high risk, will develop HNSCC. The oral microbiome contains not only bacterial communities but also fungal communities comprising the oral mycobiome.
Fungal communities have the potential not only to independently influence the environment of the oral cavity but also to interact with oral bacterial communities.
Therefore, the authors sought to identify and characterize differences in the bacteriome and mycobiome profiles of patients with HNSCC versus healthy cancer-free patients, using oral wash as template biospecimen.
Figure 5: Network analysis depicting intra-kingdom and inter-kingdom correlations. Correlations within (A) case oral wash and (B) control oral wash.
The Eng Research Team concluded in their Oncotarget Research Paper that they found inter and intra-kingdom correlations within the oral wash.
Although the composition of the clusters within networks appeared largely similar between case and control oral wash, there were some interactions that differed.
A positive relationship between two organisms could suggest that they occupy similar niches or even that they share a symbiotic relationship.
A negative relationship, by contrast, could point to two organisms that either compete against each other through varying means.
They went on to note multiple interactions that were opposing when considering case oral wash versus control oral wash suggests not only changes in the composition of the microbiome but also in how members of the microbiome interact with each other in HNSCC patients.
The relationship between Alloscardovia and Candida, for example, was negative, in case oral wash but positive in control oral wash.
Such shifts could signal the presence of HNSCC in an oral wash based screening tool for Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
"Such shifts could signal the presence of HNSCC in an oral wash based screening tool for Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma"
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DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.27629
Full text - https://www.oncotarget.com/article/27629/text/
Correspondence to - Charis Eng - [email protected]
Keywords - microbiome, bacteriome, mycobiome, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, cancer
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