AUTHOR=Amer Abdrazak , Galvin Sheila , Healy Claire M. , Moran Gary P. 

TITLE=The Microbiome of Potentially Malignant Oral Leukoplakia Exhibits Enrichment for Fusobacterium, Leptotrichia, Campylobacter, and Rothia Species

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=8

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2017.02391

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2017.02391

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p>Oral leukoplakia presents as a white patch on the oral mucosa and is recognized as having significant malignant potential. Although colonization of these patches with <italic>Candida albicans</italic> is common, little is known about the bacterial microbiota of these patches. In the current study we analyzed the microbiome of oral leukoplakia in 36 patients compared to healthy mucosal tissue from the same patients and healthy control subjects to determine if specific microbial enrichments could be identified early in the malignant process that could play a role in the progression of the disease. This was carried out by sequence analysis of the V1–V2 region of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene using the Illumina MiSeq. Oral leukoplakia exhibited increased abundance of Fusobacteria and reduced levels of Firmicutes (Metastats <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.01). <italic>Candida</italic> colonization was also more prevalent in leukoplakia patients relative to healthy controls (<italic>P</italic> = 0.025). Bacterial colonization patterns on oral leukoplakia were highly variable and five distinct bacterial clusters were discerned. These clusters exhibited co-occurrence of <italic>Fusobacterium, Leptotrichia</italic>, and <italic>Campylobacter</italic> species (Pearson <italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.01), which is strikingly similar to the microbial co-occurrence patterns observed on colorectal cancers (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="B38">Warren et al., 2013</xref>). Increased abundance of the acetaldehydogenic microorganism <italic>Rothia mucilaginosa</italic> was also apparent on oral leukoplakias from lingual sites (<italic>P</italic> 0.0012). Severe dysplasia was associated with elevated levels of <italic>Leptotrichia</italic> spp. and <italic>Campylobacter concisus</italic> (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05). Oral leukoplakia exhibits an altered microbiota that has similarities to the microbiome of colorectal cancer.</p>