Response of Salivary Microbiota to Caries Preventive Treatment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children

Emily Skelly; Newell W Johnson; Kostas Kapellas; Jeroen Kroon; Ratilal Lalloo; Laura Weyrich

doi:10.1080/20002297.2020.1830623

Response of Salivary Microbiota to Caries Preventive Treatment in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children

J Oral Microbiol. 2020 Oct 11;12(1):1830623. doi: 10.1080/20002297.2020.1830623.

Authors

Emily Skelly¹, Newell W Johnson^{2

3

4}, Kostas Kapellas⁵, Jeroen Kroon², Ratilal Lalloo⁶, Laura Weyrich^{1

7}

Affiliations

¹ Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
² School of Dentistry and Oral Health, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia.
³ Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia.
⁴ Faculty of Dentistry, Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, King's College London, London, UK.
⁵ Australian Research Centre for Population Oral Health, School of Dentistry, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
⁶ School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland, Herston, Australia.
⁷ Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.

Abstract

A once-annual caries preventive (Intervention) treatment was offered to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander schoolchildren-a population with disproportionately poorer oral health than non-Indigenous Australian children-in the Northern Peninsula Area (NPA) of Far North Queensland (FNQ), which significantly improved their oral health. Here, we examine the salivary microbiota of these children (mean age = 10 ± 2.96 years; n = 103), reconstructing the bacterial community composition with high-throughput sequencing of the V4 region of bacterial 16S rRNA gene. Microbial communities of children who received the Intervention had lower taxonomic diversity than those who did not receive treatment (Shannon, p < 0.05). Moreover, the Intervention resulted in further decreased microbial diversity in children with active carious lesions existing at the time of saliva collection. Microbial species associated with caries were detected; Lactobacillus salivarius, Lactobacillus reuteri, Lactobacillus gasseri, Prevotella multisaccharivorax, Parascardovia denticolens, and Mitsuokella HMT 131 were significantly increased (p < 0.05) in children with severe caries, especially in children who did not receive the Intervention. These insights into microbial associations and community differences prompt future considerations to the mechanisms behind caries-preventive therapy induced change; important for understanding the long-term implications of like treatment to improve oral health disparities within Australia. Trial registration: ANZCTR, ACTRN12615000693527. Registered 3 July 2015, https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=368750&isReview=true.

Keywords: Saliva; caries; children; indigenous Australian; microbial ecology; microbiota; oral health; preventative.

Grants and funding

The study was funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council [Project Grant APP 1081320] for all fieldwork, and by DECRA grant from the Australian Research Council [DE150101574] and the Australian Dental Research Foundation grant [136-2016] for laboratory consumables and sequencing.