Cigarette smoking and the oral microbiome in a large study of American adultsOriginal paper
Karen Pendergrass is a microbiome researcher specializing in microbiome-targeted interventions (MBTIs). She systematically analyzes scientific literature to identify microbial patterns, develop hypotheses, and validate interventions. As the founder of the Microbiome Signatures Database, she bridges microbiome research with clinical practice. In 2012, based on her own investigative research, she became the first documented case of FMT for Celiac Disease, four years before the first published case study.
Read MoreWhat was studied?
Researchers examined whether cigarette smoking is associated with differences in the oral microbiome. The study drew on 1204 US adults with current, former, or never smoking status.
How was it studied?
Oral wash samples underwent 16S rRNA gene sequencing, with reads clustered into operational taxonomic units using QIIME. PICRUSt was used to infer metagenomic functional content from the taxonomic data.
What did they find?
Overall oral microbiome composition differed between current smokers and non-current (former and never) smokers. Current smokers had markedly lower relative abundance of Proteobacteria, 4.6 percent versus 11.7 percent in never smokers, a difference consistent at class, genus, and OTU levels. Former smokers did not differ from never smokers. Beyond Proteobacteria, the genera Capnocytophaga, Peptostreptococcus, and Leptotrichia were depleted, while Atopobium and Streptococcus were enriched, in current versus never smokers.
Why it matters
Inferred metagenomic function showed that genera depleted by smoking were tied to carbohydrate, energy, and xenobiotic metabolism pathways. The findings suggest smoking reshapes the oral microbiome in ways that may relate to smoking-associated oral and systemic disease, and that cessation may allow partial recovery toward a never-smoker profile.