Streptococcus mutans- associated bacteria in dental plaque of severe early childhood caries

Yixin Zhang; Jiakun Fang; Jingyi Yang; Xiaolei Gao; Liying Dong; Xuan Zheng; Liangjie Sun; Bin Xia; Na Zhao; Zeyun Ma; Yixiang Wang

doi:10.1080/20002297.2022.2046309

Streptococcus mutans- associated bacteria in dental plaque of severe early childhood caries

J Oral Microbiol. 2022 Mar 2;14(1):2046309. doi: 10.1080/20002297.2022.2046309. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Yixin Zhang^{1

2

3

4}, Jiakun Fang⁵, Jingyi Yang⁶, Xiaolei Gao², Liying Dong², Xuan Zheng², Liangjie Sun², Bin Xia⁶, Na Zhao^{7

8}, Zeyun Ma⁹, Yixiang Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ Central Laboratory Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology, Beijing, China.
² Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology, Beijing, China.
³ National Engineering Laboratory for Digital and Material Technology of Stomatology, Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology, Beijing, China.
⁴ Beijing Key Laboratory of Digital Stomatology, Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology, Beijing, China.
⁵ Office of Operations Management, Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology, Beijing, China.
⁶ Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology, Beijing, China.
⁷ Department of Restorative Dentistry and Biomaterials Sciences, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
⁸ Shanghai Stomatological Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
⁹ Department of VIP Service, Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Background: Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans) is a potential pathogenic bacteria of dental caries. However, the level of S. mutans is low in some children with severe early childhood caries (SECC).

Aim: To evaluate the effect of S. mutans level on dental microbiome and cariogenesis.

Methods: The oral microbiota was compared between caries-free group (CF) and SECC group.16S rRNA gene sequencing was used for S. mutans level bacterial community analysis. The candidate bacteria that were closely related with S. mutans abundance were identified and confirmed by absolute quantitative real-time PCR in clinical dental plaque samples from CF and SECC groups.

Results: Through in-depth analysis of dental plaque microorganism, Leptotrichia, Selenomonas and Prevotella_7 were found in the S. mutans-low group (p < 0.05) and Porphyromonas, Selenomonas_3 were found in the S. mutans-high group (p < 0.05). Through quantitative real-time PCR, Leptotrichia, Selenomonas and Prevotella_7 were identified as the potential biomarkers of SECC when S. mutans was at a low level.

Conclusion: Leptotrichia, Selenomonas and Prevotella_7 are identified as potential biomarkers in SECC with a low abundance or without S. mutans. Our study may shed light on the understanding of caries occurrence in SECC with low abundance of S. mutans.

Abbreviations: S. mutans, Streptococcus mutans; CF, caries-free; SECC, severe early childhood caries; ECC, early childhood caries; rRNA, ribosome RNA; qPCR, Quantitative real-time PCR; OTUs, operational taxonomic units; ANOVA, analysis of variance; LDA, Linear discriminant analysis; LEfSe, Linear discriminant analysis effect size; COG, Groups of proteins; NMDS, Non-MetricMulti-Dimensional Scaling; IL-1β, interleukin -1β; IL-6, interleukin-6; IL-8, interleukin-8; IL-10, interleukin-10.

Keywords: 16S rRNA gene sequencing; Severe early childhood caries (SECC); bacteria; dental plaque; streptococcus mutans abundance.

Grants and funding

The study was supported by Research Grants from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2021YFC2301000), National Nature Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 81977920 and 81900983), Shanghai Science and Technology Young Talents Sailing Program (19YF1442500) and Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality (grant no. 7182181).